اليوم العالمى للايدز 2005: النساء و البنات الصغيرات و متلازمة نقصان المناعة

Quote: Violence against women in conflict In many other parts of the world, rape and other sexual violence arising in the context of conflict are helping to drive the HIV pandemic. Rape and sexual violence have been used as a weapon of war through history and have been an all-too-common feature of contemporary conflicts. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) both civilian women and girls and women forced to fight as combatants are at risk of sexual violence and exposure to HIV. Local and international NGOs have attempted to intervene with the armed groups in the DRC to secure the release of child soldiers. Following an intervention in early 2004 that led to the release of 36 girl soldiers, mostly aged around 14 or 15, one Congolese activist reported that 17 of the girls were found to be HIV positive.(34) The violence and destruction arising in the context of conflict has other ramifications for the health system. No more than eight percent of blood used in transfusions is tested for HIV, because either the infrastructure has been destroyed or the resources are not available.(35) According to the DRC National AIDS Programme, 80 per cent of health centres in the DRC do not test blood prior to using it for transfusions, seriously endangering those who receive blood transfusions.(36) Reports emerged in mid-2004 that members of the United Nations Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo(37) were having sexual contact with young girls living near the UN compound in a centre for internally displaced people in Bunia, DRC. Comments made by the girls made clear that they saw the ####### as "transactional" – that is, they agreed to ####### in order to receive food and other basic goods.(3 The responsibility of women for gathering food and water can render them liable to sexual violence in conflict zones. In the Central African Republic, hundreds of women and girls were raped in late 2002 and early 2003 during internal conflict. AI reported on a number of individual cases including that of a woman, known in the report as ‘BEY’, aged 24, who was raped by three combatants in December 2002 while on her way to fetch water. She was wounded by the men and was subsequently treated with traditional medicines. She was later found to be HIV-positive though how she contracted the virus is uncertain. It is common for women who have been raped to believe that they contracted the infection through rape and it is certain that for many this is the case.(39) HIV infection can compound the social as well as the health consequences for women who have been raped during conflict. One women who was repeatedly raped during the genocide period in Rwanda told AI: "I learned I had HIV when I got tested before the birth of my youngest, in 1999. Since I learned I was infected, my husband said he couldn’t live with me. He divorced me and left me with three children, so now I don’t know how to pay for food, rent, school and so on. I have no family left… My six-year-old has many health problems, and she must have HIV. She looks three-years-old, coughs, and X-rays show that her left lung is destroyed, but she is allergic to antibiotics. She should be on ARVs [antiretroviral drugs], but there isn’t the money, and it’s hard to get children onto ARVs in Rwanda…"(40) In both Rwanda and Burundi there remains a stigma against both survivors of rape and those living with HIV. AI has reported that some women in Burundi refrain from seeking medical treatment following rape because of the risk that they will subsequently be identified as rape victims within their community. The epidemic of rape and women’s inability or unwillingness to find treatment following sexual assaults is contributing to the HIV crisis in Burundi.(41) The same picture is replicated in other areas of conflict in Africa. Security Council Resolution 1325 (2000) "addresses protection of women during armed conflict, and calls for an end to impunity for gender-based abuses during and after conflict, the integration of a gender perspective in peace-making and peace-keeping, and the participation of women in all levels of decision-making and issues related to prevention management and resolution of conflict. It calls for action from a wide range of stakeholders, including governments, the UN Security Council, UN Secretary-General and all parties to armed conflict." (42) In Colombia, women targeted for gender-based violence are among the casualties of the continuing internal conflict. A significant component of the strategy of armed groups for exercising control over the population is the imposition of rigid gender norms and rules of conduct that apply even within the family unit. This type of control is often preceded or accompanied by what the paramilitary groups call "social cleansing" – the killing of petty criminals, prostitutes, and others perceived as "socially undesirable". Gender-based violence is used to impose a moral code based on rigidly differentiated roles for men and women. Amnesty International has received testimonies which point to the persecution, disappearance and killing of women who depart from these social codes as well as persons from other stigmatized groups, including ####### workers, people targeted on account of their sexual orientation and alleged carriers of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), such as HIV/AIDS.(43) The sexual and other violence directed at women which is seen in conflicts in different continents not only traumatises women and girls, but puts them at risk of STIs including HIV.