International Child Day - 20 November

Children Affected by HIV/AIDS
The HIV/AIDS pandemic is not only threatening the physical health and survival of millions of children around the world, it is destroying their families and depriving them of parental love, care and protection. Stigma and discrimination, often associated with HIV infection, can lead to exclusion and isolation and ruin a child’s chances to receive an education. Children whose families are affected by HIV/AIDS experience severe emotional and psychological distress. Economic hardship resulting from their parents’ inability to work may cause children to drop out of school or become child labourers. They are often forced to assume the burden of caring for sick parents or for their younger siblings. Children orphaned by HIV/AIDS are more exposed to exploitation, abuse and violence. Conversely, many situations in which children have inadequate protection – including sexual exploitation, trafficking, violence, armed conflict, recruitment in armed forces or groups, displacement, detention and imprisonment, child marriage and female genital mutilation/cutting – also make them more vulnerable to HIV infection.

Facts and figures
• In 2005, the number of children less than 15 years old living with HIV was estimated at 2.3 million. Of these, 700,000 were newly infected. More than half a million children (570,000) died of AIDS during the same period.

• Some 62 per cent of the world’s young people infected with HIV and about 80 per cent of the children orphaned by AIDS live in sub-Saharan Africa.

• Since the outset of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in the early 1980s, the proportion of women with HIV has risen steadily. Today, nearly half of those who are HIV positive are women or girls.

HUMAN RIGHTS
In the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989), States Parties recognize the right of the child to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health (Article 24). States Parties shall also respect and ensure the rights set forth in the Convention to each child within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind (Article 2).

Arabic Forum