Extreme poverty and its impact on women's vulnerability to HIV transmission: a rights issue

Abstract

This paper analyses how the construction of extreme poverty, gender inequality and powerlessness among women in Malawi make them vulnerable to HIV transmission. It argues that since HIV/AIDS remains without a cure, the persistence of poverty, inequality and powerlessness violate women's right to life. The paper uses the findings of a grounded study conducted by Women and Law in Southern Africa Research and Educational Trust Malawi (WLSA-Malawi) to show how social realities in specific contexts are driving the epidemic, particularly against women. There is an urgent need for an operationalisation of human rights as a matter of State obligation in the face of a global crisis, by recognising women as true actors and effective participants in the process of development.

Keywords:

• Malawi
• HIV/AIDS
• women's rights
• rights-based approach
• women's law approach

Notes

S. White et al. Feminisation of HIV/AIDS in Malawi: Women's Right to Life and Factors That Create Vulnerability to HIV Transmission (WLSA Malawi, forthcoming).

Crichton et al., ‘Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights in Africa’, The Lancet 367 (2006): 2043–5.

R. Cook, B. Dickens and M. Fathalla, Reproductive Health and Human Rights: Integrating Medicine, Ethics, and Law (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2003), 148.

Ibid., 150.

J. Theis, ‘Rights-based Monitoring and Evaluation’, Discussion Paper, Save the Children (US), 2003, p. 10.

Ibid.

VeneKlasen et al., ‘Rights-based Approaches and Beyond: Challenges of Linking Rights and Participation’, IDS Working Paper 235, 2004.

G.R. Painter ‘Gender, the Millennium Development Goals and Human Rights in the Context of the 2005 Review Process’, A Report for the Gender and Development Network, 2004.

Ibid.

C. Hannan, ‘Gender Equality and Women's Empowerment in the New Millennium’ (paper presented at The Interfaith Institute, ‘Woman: Her Spiritual Journey’, Wisdom House, Litchfield CT, 2004).

J. Hausermann (1998) cited in Nyamu-Musembi and Cornwall ‘What is the “Rights-based Approach” All About? Perspectives from International Development Agencies’, IDS Working paper 234, 2004, p. 2.

Cook, Dickens and Fathalla, Reproductive Health and Human Rights, 156.

Ibid.; Joachim Theis, ‘Rights-based Monitoring and Evaluation’, Discussion Paper, Save the Children (US), 2003.

R. Baumeister and K. Vohs, ‘Sexual Economics: Sex as Female Resource for Social Exchange in Heterosexual Interactions’, Personality and Social Psychology Review 8, no. 4 (2004): 339–63.

Bentzon et al. Pursuing Grounded Theory In Law: South North Experiences in Developing, Women's Law Series No. 1 (Oslo: Tano Ascheoug and Harare: Mond Book, 1998), 91.

Dahl 1987, cited Ibid., 91.

Ibid., 92.

Ibid., 93.

A. Hellum, ‘Towards a Human Rights Development Approach: The Case of Women in the Water Reform Process in Zimbabwe’, Law, Social Justice & Global Development Journal (LGD) 1 (2001), http://elj.warwick.ac.uk/global/issue/2001-1/hellum.html (accessed August 23, 2008).

Ibid., 12.

Zweigert and Kotz 1994, cited Ibid.

Government of Malawi, ‘Malawi Population and Housing Census’, Population Projections Report, 1999–2023 (Malawi: National Statistics Office (NSO), 1998).

Ibid.

Government of Malawi/National AIDS Commission, 2005 Sentinel Report (Lilongwe: NAC, 2005).

Ibid.

S. White et al., ‘Dispossessing The Widow; Gender Based Violence In Malawi’, A Research Report (Zomba and Limbe, Malawi: Kachere Publications/WLSA-Malawi, 2002).

Government of Malawi, Integrated Household Survey Report 2005 (Zomba: National Statistical Office, 2005), http://www.nso.malawi.net/ (accessed 7 February, 2009).

Ibid., 138–9.

Government of Malawi/World Bank, The Malawi Poverty and Vulnerability Assessment, Investing in Our Future (Lilongwe: Government of Malawi, 2006), http://www.aec.msu.edu/fs2/mgt/caadp/malawi_pva_draft_052606_final_draft.pdf (accessed February 7, 2009).

Government of Malawi/Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, Malawi Growth and Development Strategy (Lilongwe: Ministry of Economic Planning and Development, 2006), http://www.malawi.gov.mw/Economic%20Planning/Home%20Economic%20Planning.htm (accessed February 7, 2009).

Mbelezi support group interviewed in Mwanyali Village, T/A Mkanda, in the Mulanje district.

An interview conducted by the author with a group of tea pluckers in Thylo District of Malawi.

C. Albertyn, Using Rights and the Law to Reduce Women's Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS – A Discussion Paper (South Africa: Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and AIDS Law Project, 2000).

Government of Malawi/Ministry of Women and Child Welfare, The National Gender Programme. Priorities Of Gender Mainstreaming For Equality And Empowerment (December 2004–December 2009) (Lilongwe: Government of Malawi, 2005).

Interview with a forest guard in Mulanje district Malawi.

UNAIDS, AIDS In Africa Three Scenarios to 2025 (Geneva: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), 2005), http://data.unaids.org/Publications/IRC-pub07/jc1058-aidsinafrica_en.pdf?preview=true (accessed February 7, 2009).

Seodi White, ‘The Malawi National Gender Policy: Mainstreaming Success Or Failure?’ Dissertation, University of Sussex, UK, 2003; Seodi White, ‘Can the Law Reduce HIV Transmission among Women?’ (paper presented at Southern African Regional Gender Mainstreaming Symposium, Mbabane, Swaziland, 2005).

C. Nyamu-Musembi, ‘Are Local Norms and Practices Fences or Pathways? The Example of Women's Property Rights’, in Cultural Transformation and Human Rights in Africa, ed. A. An-Naim (New York: Zed Books, 2002).

Ibid., 174.

Dow and Kidd, ‘Women, Marriage and Inheritance’, Research Report (Gaborone: WLSA Botswana, 1994), 4.

J. Griffiths ‘What is Legal Pluralism?’, Journal of Legal Pluralism (1986): 39, http://keur.eldoc.ub.rug.nl/FILES/wetenschappers/2/11886/11886.pdf (accessed February 9, 2009).

Sally Falk Moore, Law as Process: An Anthropological Approach (London and Boston: Routledge & K. Paul, 1978).

S.E. Merry, ‘Gender Violence and Legally Engendered Selves’, Identities 2 nos 1–2 (1995): 59.

B. Cousins, ‘How Do Rights Become Real? Formal and Informal Institutions in South Africa Land Reform’, IDS Bulletin, April 28, 1997, 4.

Ibid., 13.

Hunt (1991, 247) cited Ibid.

Government of Malawi, The Constitution of The Republic of Malawi (Zomba: Government Print, 1994).

Ibid., section 13.