World Population Day, July 11, 2005  

Respected leaders, dear friends,

The theme for this year's Population Day in China is "Empower Women, Fight HIV/AIDS." This theme is in recognition of the anniversary of the Women's Conference, held in Beijing ten years ago, as well as the great challenge of HIV/AIDS.

Why is empowerment for women important for AIDS?

Overcoming the challenge of AIDS is as much about changing human attitudes as about medical treatment. As my colleagues have said, stigma, exclusion and helplessness make people less knowledgeable about what causes HIV/AIDS, how to prevent it, how to negotiate so that they can protect themselves, or how to obtain treatment if they are infected. So it is the powerless who are most exposed.

Around the world, AIDS increasingly has a female face. In Africa, ten years ago, it was mostly men who became HIV positive; today the majority are women. Among the young, in some countries up to 75% of those infected are women. Why is that? One reason is that women are physically more vulnerable to the infection, but a large part is due to the fact that women have little power. We talk a lot about risky behavior. But let us take an example. Today in India, a major part of new infections is to married, monogamous women. That is, the greatest risk behavior can be to be a married woman. Meeting this challenge will mean changing the behavior of their husbands too.

Apart from being at special risk, women are particularly important actors in prevention and care. Women are often the main caretakers of those who have fallen sick, as well as being in a key position to help educate their children.

What about in China? The infection is still at an early stage. But the proportion of women is increasing -- from 15.3 percent in 1998 to 39.0 percent in 2004. As elsewhere, women need the necessary information and influence so that they can be part of the preventive measures. There are particularly vulnerable groups, such as young women who work in entertainment establishments.  We should be sure to avoid stigma against them, and provide them with the means to protect themselves.

So, some of the key actions are:

l         To ensure that girls and women have the knowledge and means to prevent HIV infection

l         To ensure equal and universal access to treatment, including sexual and reproductive health care, and prevention of mother to child transmission

l         To recognize, and support, home based caregivers of AIDS patients and orphans, to lessen their burden

l         To promote girls' and women's education, ensuring provision of life skills education, and curricula that avoid gender stereotypes, and encourage a safe learning environment for girls

l         To promote zero tolerance of all forms of violence against women and girls

l         To promote and protect the human rights of girls and women by reviewing laws

l         To support HIV positive women and women's networks

This is why I am delighted to see the initiative that is being launched today. We all hear that programs to combat AIDS should be "crosscutting," but in practice that can be very difficult to implement. In the initiative you are launching there is a very practical approach, looking at just four ministries, building on their complementary roles, of

l         communication

l         care

l         prevention, and

l         gender

Such a crosscutting approach, building on the strengths of each ministry, and addressing directly the key actions mentioned above, seems to me to be an ideal mix, being both realistic and logical and therefore strong. You should be congratulated and I wish you all the best in the implementation. 

(China.org.cn July 11, 2005)