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Abstract:
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In Malawi, the feminization of HIV/AIDS is particularly evident. Over 14% of Malawian adults aged 15—49 are HIV positive, one of the highest HIV prevalence rates in the world. Malawian women account for 57% of HIV/AIDS cases. In the 15—24 age group, more than twice as many women are infected as men (14.5% vs. 6.5% respectively). The average life expectancy of women has fallen to 39.6 years slightly below that of Malawian men. Twenty-five years after the AIDS epidemic exploded onto the world stage, HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination continue to flourish. Women living with HIV/AIDS (WLWHA) in Malawi experience verbal attacks, social isolation, and discrimination in access to social welfare resources such as federal fertilizer subsidies, food-for-work and cash-for-work public works programs, and micro-credit loans. Women living with HIV/AIDS also report positive experiences of empathy, support and acceptance from their families and communities. These reports, however, are exceptions to the more common treatment of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) as “useless,” “weak” and “already dead.”These conditions persist despite Malawi’s commitments under international law to protect people living with HIV/AIDS from discrimination. Malawi has signed and ratified the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), the Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), and the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, which guarantee people living with HIV/AIDS freedom from discrimination. Taken together, these instruments reflect Malawi’s obligation to confront discrimination against women living with HIV/AIDS in Malawi, who disproportionately suffer the devastating effects of HIV/AIDS.
Women living with HIV/AIDS throughout the country spoke of a desire to provide for their families and live productive and healthy lives. However, stigma and discrimination impedes these efforts by cutting women off from essential resources and opportunities that can mitigate the effects of HIV/AIDS. In order to win the prevention and treatment battles in the fight against HIV/AIDS, and ensure that all people living with HIV/AIDS can live productive lives, the Malawian government must make the fight against HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination a central component of its HIV/AIDS policy. |