Mercy escaped her slavers last year. Like many Nigerian women smuggled or lured into Italy with the promise of jobs, Mercy was forced into prostitution to earn her freedom. But escape did not end her nightmare. Three weeks after speaking publicly to human rights groups about her experience, her sister was reported dead in Florence, true to the threats made by her former captors.

Some pay to be smuggled into Europe, but end up as victims. In one smuggling run to Italy via Morocco, seventeen Nigerian girls died when their boat capsized on the Mediterranean Sea. Forty died after reaching their destination in Italy: brothels where women and girls are forced to pay off a $50,000 debt by servicing a dozen men per night.

This trade in human beings is a global problem of staggering human dimensions. As many as four million people are trafficked worldwide each year as victims of forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation, leaving a trail of devastated lives. Too many are women and children forced into pornography or prostitution.

This is modern day slavery. From Nigeria to Italy, from Albania to Moldova, from countries in Asia to Western Europe to the United States, no nation is untouched and every country is linked in a chain of greed, corruption, exploitation, and violence. It is everybody's problem.

The solution requires action and close coordination from the international community. Success comes when government officials work with non-governmental actors on the frontlines with victims, border guards with local policemen on the streets, social workers with doctors and nurses in clinics and educators with children in the classroom.

In the spirit of this cooperation, the United States Department of State is proud to host a three-day conference, Pathbreaking Strategies in the Global Fight Against Sex Trafficking, that opened February 23 in Washington, D.C. The conference brings together law enforcement and government officials, international organizations, and NGOs that have made great strides in fighting this growing menace.

Together, they will develop a practical set of tools drawn from successful strategies already carried out across the globe.

The stakes couldn't be higher. While more and more of the world's people enjoy the fruits of free markets and democracy, others are seeing transnational crime and corruption take root and grow. Sex slavery in Central and Eastern Europe has grown explosively since the end of the Cold War and the opening of western borders. The organized crime syndicates who prosper from this trade - and the corruption and violence that are necessary to sustain it - form a malignancy on these young democracies.

The United States is not immune. An estimated 50,000 trafficked people, many of them victims of labor exploitation or forced prostitution, reach our shores each year. Our job will not be done until this enslavement is ended and those responsible brought to justice.

Sex-traffickers promise normal jobs with high wages, foreign adventure, even marriage. Their victims, often eager to escape dire situations at home, fall easily into their trap through trickery, coercion or outright abduction. Once abroad, they may be stripped of travel documents and kept isolated in slave-like conditions, moved from place to place, bartered and sold like guns and narcotics. They can be used almost endlessly, working in ghastly conditions in brothels or private homes and apartments. They face a world of fear: fear of arrest, fear of retribution against their families, fear of HIV/AIDS, of rape, of beatings. In some areas, meanwhile, known traffickers live lavishly without fear of prosecution while their victims suffer miserably.

The anti-trafficking conference in Washington highlights the work of governments, NGOs, and international organizations that have courageously taken on the sex-slave trade. Many have worked with the United States on programs to address the myriad of economic, political, and social conditions that underlie the problem. Some of these projects include job training, education programs, training of law enforcement and health care workers, guidance on anti-trafficking legislation, media and public awareness programs, victims shelters, safe houses, and reintegration assistance.

With the international community, the United States is committed to ending this incarnation of one of history's most dreadful crimes against humanity. In the coming months, the Administration hopes to submit to the U.S. Senate the United Nations Protocol on Trafficking in Persons.

Most importantly perhaps, practical action on the ground is essential. In source countries, vulnerable people need to know the dangers they face. Transit countries must tighten border controls. Destination countries must develop the legal mechanisms to prosecute traffickers and protect their victims. Police must talk to each other across international borders and domestic jurisdictions. Much can be done and there is much left to do to restore freedom, dignity and hope to millions of lives. We hope this "pathbreaking" conference will help participants plot a common course of action, and provide real strategies to address this very real human tragedy

The education of girls is arguably the best development investment that be made. Girls’ education increase economic productivity, bring improvements in health to women and those they care for, delays the age of first marriage, lowers fertility, increase women’s bargaining power in families, increase family level investments in children.

While other intervention could achieve these social benefits girls’ education is the only one that simultaneously achieves all of them. Yet, despite the fact that the universal right to primary education has been affirmed by the world’s government for more than 50year, girls’ education has been low on the agenda of most government and donors.

Without education, it is difficult for women to exercise their rights and meet their aspirations. Their livelihoods, negotiating power in marriage, participation in political decision-making, and opportunities in the modern economy are all compromised by low literacy and numeric skills. When with at least some education are more likely to work in the wage economy and earn higher wages. Education enhances women’s productivity both in farm and non-farm sectors. There is an impressive setting between women’s level of education, their age at first marriage, and their ability to attain their desired family size.

Education mothers extend the benefit of their schooling to their children in a more direct manner than father does. In light of these benefits, it striking that the great majority of children who are not enrolling in primary school is girls. There are a variety of reason for girls’ lower school enrolment and attainment levels. Many are traceable to family decisions. Because many poor families cannot afford school fees for all their children, they educate only those children usually boys, whom they consider most likely to provide some return on their investment. In addition to fees, other direct costs associated with school include transportation, classroom materials and appropriate clothing.

Sending girls to school may impose indirect and social costs on families. Girls more than boys tend to have responsibilities such as caring for younger siblings housework, farming, and trade , that may prevent them from attending school or from having sufficient time to d schoolwork. Give even when family size declines, girl many new work roles within the family to compensate for boys who are continuing their schooling. Many governments fail to make the adjustment that would increase the acceptability and consistency of girls’ school attendance, such as flexible hours, school schedules organised around the agricultural cycle, more female teachers, and adequate toilet facilities.


Fearing for girls’ sexual safety and doubting the value of girls’ formal education many keep girls out of school for their own protection and for the families’ convenience. Girls’ school attendance in highly traditional societies, where girls’ sexual safety is paramount, can vary tremendous according to girl’s proximity to school. In some rural communities in Nigeria, girls’ enrolment in school is heavily conditioned by its proximity.

To promote girls education, government policy maker, civil society, and donor should join hands together to reduce the cost of this schooling, such as waiving fees for girls and providing subsidies and other scholarships for books and others school materials.

WOMEN’S RIGHT IN THE FIGHT AGAINST HIV/AIDS

The global HIV/AIDS pandemic is taking a catastrophic toll on women and Girls. The number of HIV infections among women and girls has risen in every region in recent year and in sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls constitute nearly sixty percent of those living with HIV. In some countries, the HIV infection rates for girls are many times higher than for boys. The rising number of HIV infections among women and girls is directly related to violence against women and their unequal legal, economic, and social status.

Abuses of women’s and girl’s human rights impede their access to HIV/AIDS information and service, include testing and treatment. Those who do obtain HIV service sometimes face disclosure of their confidential HIV test results by public health official without the women’s consent. This heightens women’s risk of being ostracized by their communities and abused by their intimate partners.

Government around the world have done far too little to combat the entrench, chronic abuse of women’s and girls human rights that put them at risk of HIV. Misguided HIV/AIDS programs and policies such as those emphasizing abstinence until marriage, ignore the brutal realities many women and girls face. By failing to enact and effectively enforce laws on domestic violence, marital rape, women’s equal property rights, and sexual abuse of girls, and by tolerating customs and traditions that subordinate women governments are enabling HIV/AIDS to continue claiming the lives of women and girls.

Children orphaned and affected by HIV/AIDS, especially girls are at risk of property grabbing when their parents are sick or die. Divorced and separated women fare no better. many countries have no statutory law on division of family property upon divorce, leaving the matter to the discretion of judges or traditional leaders, countless divorced women have told human right watch right claims have no hope of prevailing in property right claims due to the biases against women among property rights upon divorce also facilitate domestic violence, again posing the risk of HIV. Government fail to provide basis protection from sexual abuse that would lessen girls’ vulnerability to AIDS. HIV prevention, testing, and treatment programs are central to fighting AIDS. Yet insensitivity to the concerns of women and girls in this program often make the solution part of the problem.

As developing countries gear up for massively expanded antiretroviral treatment programs, urgent attention is needed to ensure that women and girls well access Arts equitably. Due to pervasive discrimination, women are less likely than men to have the income or assets needed to pay for antiretroviral therapy. In some families, men determine whether women and girls will be allowed to leave the home and take time always from household duties to visit health centres. Many widows today are denied inheritance and lost everything to property grabbing in laws they had no money to survive, much less pay for antiretroviral therapy and other health care.

Agenda for action, government, donors, and international organization to address gender inequality as an abuse in its own right and as a central element of HIV/AIDS policy and programs. Government should reform laws to protect women right in term of heritance, sexual violence, marriage, and access to housing and social services. Donors and international organisations should actively encourage government to enact and implement laws policies that protect women’s right.

AIDS 2006 Youth Site
This entry is about: AIDS 2006 – XVI International AIDS Conference


I am very happy to welcome everyone to the AIDS 2006. This is the first time the International AIDS Conference has had a youth specific things component and our team is very excited about it! TakingITGlobal has been working very hard to get everything up and running so many thanks to their hard-working team.Youth should take this opporunity to make meaningful impact at the conference and after the conference.

Women and girl children, apart from being more vulnerable to HIV
infection, have to bear an additional burden when someone in the family is
infected with the disease. It is the girl child who is more likely to be
withdrawn from school to cope with household chores including caring
for the ill, a study on the Gender Impact of HIV and AIDS in India has
shown.
According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) estimates
for 2005, in India, women account for about two million of the
approximately 5.2 million estimated cases of HIV and AIDS, constituting 39 per
cent of all HIV infections. Of the 1,11,608 AIDS cases reported in the
country until July 31 last year, females accounted for nearly 30 per
cent.
The burden of caring for People Living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) is
also proportionately higher in the case of women, whether or not they
themselves are HIV positive. Of the 882 caregivers in the families
surveyed, 627 were women — 91 per cent of them in the age group 15-59. Twenty
per cent of the caregivers themselves were HIV positive, as against 16
per cent in the case of men.
Conducted by the National Council of Applied Economic Research
(NCAER) and supported by the NACO and the United Nations Development
Programme (UNDP), the study concludes that not only does women's workload at
home increase, but they are also required to take up employment to
supplement lost earnings.
In a clear indication of the gender gap in treatment seeking
behaviour, close to 9.7 per cent of the patients were left untreated in the
case of HIV/AIDS affected women, the study found, nearly double the case
of men. Also, women were more likely to get treated in health facilities
run by government or non-government organisations in comparison to a
greater proportion of men being treated at private nursing homes. Only
29.8 per cent of the women surveyed went to private health facilities for
non-hospitalised illnesses, against 41.3 per cent in the case of men. A
similar picture can be seen in the case of hospitalised illnesses.
While HIV and AIDS have a negative impact on children from affected
households, it is the girl child who is more likely to be withdrawn to
cope with household chores or to supplement the family income. All
PLHWAs face stigma and discrimination; the women face the worst forms of
discrimination. More women than men faced discrimination such as neglect,
isolation and verbal teasing in both urban and rural areas.
Households headed by HIV positive widows are also found to be
economically worse off than other HIV households, with the average at Rs.
32,993 in the case of women and Rs. 51,111 in the case of men. The average
per capita expenditure by HIV positive widow household was Rs. 790.
Moreover, the savings of HIV positive widow households was lower and
indebtedness higher than other HIV households.

Indeed the fact that the world does not care enough to address these
issues really expresses the degree of human degradation and this is
linked to humanity's ancient shame and fear based modes of existence. From
shame and fear and seeing the world as what it is NOT rather than what
it IS or the POTENTIAL that exists, we create a feast/famine duality
upon which one side has so much that they make themselves sick both
mentally and physically, while the other side suffers from a lack of even
the most basic resources.

What is missing from this equation is the realization that it is simply
not in humanity's interests to maintain such a dysfunctional pattern of
existence and the extremes we now see in the use of resources are not
historical norms. In the past, I believe the distance between rich and
poor was much less because of the practical limits to what technology
could do. With the loss of those natural limits to growth and technology
development, we see gross distortions between the haves and have-nots
globally. This trend if unchecked will threaten the stability of not
only globalization but the whole process of modernization itself as it
will lead not only to rising resentment but increasing impulses to strike
back at the powerful by any means necessary - terrorism.

Now in terms of your comments regarding the market system I agree but I
want to add what I see as was and is still missing in the traditional
left-right dialectic. First the left needs to accept the understanding
that liberalization is necessary but the problem is how to liberalize.
It is the difference between a development program based on rhetoric and
results driven actions involves transparency and such action oriented
development in my view involves the empowerment of local economic actors
at the grassroots.

In Africa there are many famous stories of national leaders who started
out driven by noble and idealistic visions and descended into
corruption and dictatorship and civil war. In Tanzania my understanding was that
collectivist approach inspired by Marx was a failure. Yet this does not
mean that we should or do not need to be more collective in our
approach. However, such strategies would in my view best designed as hybrid,
market driven social enterprises. This includes in my view a community
based development strategy that focuses on building a open society and
encourages local innovation in moving away from top down development
models that disregard the needs of local people while propping up the
political legitimacy of Western as well as local elites.

Also key is the rise of clever appropriate technologies and approaches
that bring people together in a multisectorial approach to development.
For example, considering a lack of adequate food supply as a key health
issue in Africa, we might consider the development of new Integrated
Farming/sustainable agriculture systems that: requires little land; is
highly productive; requires minimal inputs (mechanization, fertilizer and
pesticides); and regenerates the soil. Today the small farmer dominated
agricultural system in Africa is dependent on western agricultural
development model that benefits the western agribusiness industries more
than the people in Africa and this is the root of Africa's ills. And it
is not just the corporations selling this corrupt system but it is
western governments, academia and even most of the mainline NGO community.
And I think the reasons for this are obvious - everyone (the established
players) gets a piece of the development action.

Because most African societies are still agricultural and rural based,
we need to look at this issue deeply. Any health care solution in
Africa is not sustainable, if there is no sustainable economy for the
grassroots. And most importantly we need to provide systems for providing
healthy food for local people that does not degrade the environment to
complement any serious approach to the many health issues discussed here.
My suggestion is that the West needs to re-evaluate its role in
creating the structural deficiencies in Africa and other developing regions
and to see the key role its big business sectors play in this. If the
West is going to claim to help Africa with its situation, we need to be
serious about it and not actually do more harm than good, perpetuating
our dysfunctional role in exacerbating Africa's problem that began with
colonialism.

For example something is wrong with a system that exports coffee,
fruits and other tropical products desired by temperate affluent regions of
the world, while the people in these regions working the fields and
playing other supportive roles in sustaining this infrastructure do not
themselves have enough food to eat. We are all complicit in this
dysfunctional system and we need to take responsibility for our complicity by
doing more to support an alternative development model that promotes
sustainable agricultural solutions that focus on local needs first.

The prices of desirable commodities produced in emerging markets would
be based on a global tax as part of the WTO regime to ensure the cost
of shipping these products to western markets:
1. Credible scientific evidence that fossil fuels contribute to global
warming
2. Impact of primarily western owned plantations in terms of degrading
the soil
3. Removal of biomass from tropical regions that ends up perversely in
landfills in affluent nations and finally the reality.
4. Exploitation of the workers
5. Consideration of the fact that precious lands are being used to
export foods in regions of the world where large sections of the local
populations do not have their caloric and nutritional needs met.

The proceeds of this tax would go towards the funding of a
comprehensive sustainable development plan that would ensure that local farmers
promoting more sustainable agricultural practices could sustain themselves
and that their production if necessary would in effect be subsidized so
that more local people could afford to buy their products. This would
have the effect of inducing more balanced agricultural development
strategies so that the need to create foreign exchange through the export of
commodities was balanced with the immediate needs of local people to
adequately provide food, shelter, clothing, health care clean drinking
water and proper sanitation to themselves and their families.