Law reform needed in view of the HIV/AIDS pandemic - Activist

Accra, March 18, GNA - A women's right activist on Thursday said HIV/AIDS has grave legal implications and there was the need for law reforms to address the legal dimensions of the disease.

Mrs Jane Quaye, the Executive Director of FIDA Ghana, said the issue of HIV/AIDS was tied up to matters such as whether a medical doctor should reveal the HIV status of married couples in cases where one partner was infected, or whether a husband or wife has the right to kick an infected partner out of the marital home.

Speaking at an International Women's Day Forum in Accra, Mrs Quaye said there was the need for specific laws to settle legal issues related to the disease.

The forum was organised by the United Nations Information Centre and the Coalition of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) affiliated to the United Nations (UN) Department of Public Information. It forms part of activities marking this year's international Women's Day, which was celebrated on March 8 under the theme: "Gender and HIV/AIDS".

Mrs Quaye urged NGOs to mainstream HIV/AIDS and gender issues into their activities to ensure a sustained campaign against the disease.

Mrs Gladys Asmah, Minister of Women and Children's Affairs in a speech read for her, said economic empowerment of ordinary women would enable them to negotiate for safer sex practices with partners in order to reduce their vulnerability to the HIV/AIDS infections.

"We have to strategically put up initiatives to help create wealth, and reduce poverty in order to remove the culture of dependence of women and girls on men for their economic survival either as commercial sex workers or as partners of men with multiple sex partners."

The Minister said the Government had established micro-credit programmes, which specifically targeted women to economically empower them to support their families.

In a message read on behalf of the UN Secretary-General, Busumuru Kofi Annan, said: "As AIDS strikes at the lifeline of society that women represents, a vicious cycle develops. Poor women are becoming even less economically secure as a result of AIDS, often deprived of rights to housing, property or inheritance or even adequate health services.

"As AIDS forces girls to drop out of school- whether they are forced to take care of a sick relative, run the household, or help support the family- they fall deeper into poverty."