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Volume 35, Numbers 1 and 2, March and September - Special
Issue on
Women, HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Sponsored by UNESCO, New Delhi. |
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Human Rights
and HIV/AIDS with Special Reference to Women
Chandreyee Roy
Gender inequality and sexual domination of men decrease the
power of women to have control over their own bodies and in
decision-making, and increase women’s risk of violence. These
factors increase women’s susceptibility to infections especially
to the sexually transmitted ones including HIV/AIDS. The present
paper addresses the question of human rights of women in the
backdrop of various socio economic factors that enhance the
vulnerability of women to fall prey to HIV/AIDS. It analyses
gender stereotypes and explores inequalities between women and
men in regard to the control over sexual behaviour and focuses
on how different social expectations, roles, status and economic
power of men and women affect and are affected by the epidemic.
Key Words: HIV/AIDS, gender, women, vulnerability, human
rights. |
