United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for HIV and Aids in Africa, Elizabeth Mataka says there is a critical need to address issues of gender based violence, equality and non-discrimination in all areas, in order to ensure that women are girls are able to exercise their full rights.
Speaking when she addressed the 54th Commission on the Status of Women Panel Session on women, HIV and human rights: Addressing property and inheritance at the UN Temporary building in New York, yesterday, Mrs Mataka said there is also need to further ensure the promotion of the full participation of women and girls, and other vulnerable groups, so as to enable them claim their rights.
Mrs Mataka says there is growing evidence that the denial of property and inheritance rights to women increases their vulnerability to HIV or, where they are HIV positive, exacerbates its impact.
He adds that lack of equal rights for women to property and inheritance excludes women from accessing resources that would help reduce their vulnerability to HIV and improve their ability to cope with the consequences of the epidemic.
Mrs Mataka says as the epidemic advances, more households are female-headed, and that without equitable access to inheritance and property, women and their children are being rendered homeless.
She states that while there are many examples of progress being made in addressing the inheritance and property rights of women and girls across the continent, it is very clear that much more needs to be done.
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