HIV/AIDS and small arms: A challenge for the 53rd CSW

From IANSA Women's Network Bulletin 17, January 2009

The 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women will be held at the United Nations headquarters in New York from 2-13 March 2009. The priority theme is ‘The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care giving in the context of HIV/AIDS’.

IANSA women will be making the connection between small arms and HIV/AIDS, and how small arms fuel conflicts that contribute to forced migration, infectious disease, and psychological trauma. Sexual violence at gunpoint poses high risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections.

Sexual violence and exploitation, all too common in conflict and post-conflict settings, contribute to increased rates of HIV transmission. Rape by an infected man directly exposes a woman to the virus, and the abrasions or tearing of vaginal tissues that may result, increase their risk of infection even more.

In some conflicts the planned and purposeful infection of women with HIV becomes a tool of ethnic warfare. Some HIV-infected rape survivors may become pregnant as a result of the assault, bearing children who will eventually become AIDS orphans or succumb to the disease themselves.

There are many important dynamics involved in HIV transmission, including ongoing displacement and poverty which create environments that place women at risk.

Internally displaced women face additional dangers as they are often invisible to the international community within the context of violent conflict. Camps for refugees and the internally displaced have been criticised for not addressing women’s needs and concerns in their design and procedures. Failure to account for women’s security and health needs can make a camp intended to provide refuge a dangerous and deadly place for women and girls.

Small arms proliferation may also force governments to focus a majority of their efforts on defense and security measures, leaving them with few resources to cope with the health effects of gun violence, or deal with HIV/AIDS.

Even as conflicts subside, the extremely difficult economic and social conditions that follow often leave many people unemployed and unable to resume their normal community or family lives. In such situations, where AIDS is already a problem, women bear the largest burden of care for family members.

Thus, women are not only uniquely at risk of HIV contraction during and after conflicts; they also bear a disproportionate amount of the burden of caring for family members with HIV/AIDS.

HIV/AIDS is not only a health issue: it is a social issue. Girls and women who have been raped and/or captured are often blamed for their fate. Therefore impact of conflict and HIV/AIDS on women and girls’ affects their social status and can lead to further violence.

"Wars and armed conflicts generate fertile conditions for the spread of HIV. Rape inside or outside refugee camps has doubtless played a part in spreading the virus." UNAIDS 1998

For more information, see:

Commission on the Status of Women, 53rd Session

HIV/AIDS, Conflict and Displacement
UNICEF and UNHCR, 2006