Women and Girls

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), adopted in 1979 by the United Nation's General Assembly, is often described as an International Bill of Rights for women.  It defines what constitutes discrimination against women and sets up an agenda to end it.
Read more about it: http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/cedaw/text/econvention.htm.htm
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  Global Financial Crisis Could Push
More Girls Into Child Labor

The financial crisis threatens to push more children – especially girls – into child labour, the United Nations International Labour Organization said in a new entitled “Girls a Chance: Tackling child labour, a key to the future.” 

Most recent estimates indicate that over 100 million girls are involved in child labour, with many exposed to its worst forms, according to the report. It also notes that the danger of girls being forced into labour is linked to evidence that families in many nations prefer boys when making decisions on children’s education.

“Protecting girls – and all children – from child labour calls for integrated responses that include jobs for parents, and social protection measures that help them to keep both girls and boys in school,” said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. For free copy of the report go to:  "http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/viewProduct.do?productId=10290"
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon states, violence against women is an abomination. The Cost of violence against women 'beyond calculation,'

Women and Women Inmates: Living with HIV/AIDS

The number of incarcerated women is increasing. Women are arriving at prison facilities after having been infected with HIV/AIDS prior to incarceration. Over 3.6 % of all female inmates were tested HIV positive; their rate of infection was higher than the rate among males in all regions and in most states. New York reported the largest number of female HIV-positive state prison inmates with 600. In six states and the District of Columbia, more than 5% of all state prison female inmates were infected with HIV. Dr. Jonathan Shuter, the Director of Inmate Health at Rikers Island Jail in New York in the 1990s, discovered that one fourth of the women admitted to Rikers were infected with HIV. The majority of women admitted to Rikers are Black.

Blacks represent thirteen percent of the American population but represent fifty percent of new HIV cases. An estimated sixty-four percent of the new HIV cases are women of color. Latinos represent twelve percent of the population and comprise twenty percent of the AIDS cases diagnosed in 1998. A report of the Centers for Disease Control estimates that 240, 000 to 325,000 Blacks, representing 1 in 50 Black men and 1 in 160 Black women, are infected with HIV. Black women represent forty-two percent of all AIDS cases. In 1998, HIV infection was the third leading cause of death for Black women 25-44 years old. Black women are becoming infected with HIV/AIDS at younger ages than their White female peers. Children are becoming infected with HIV/AIDS through their mothers. African American children represent almost two third (65%) of all reported pediatric AIDS cases.

Women, especially Black women, are becoming infected less by intravenous drug use than by heterosexual relationships. Black women represent thirty-eight percent of all AIDS cases contracted through heterosexual relations. An estimated 75 percent of Black women diagnosed with HIV between 1998 and 2000 were infected through a heterosexual relationship.

An Excerpt from "To Be Black, Infected, and Incarcerated: A Socio-Legal Perspective on Female Inmates with HIV/AIDS" written by Gloria J. Browne-Marshall. 

Data provided by:Bulletin of the Bureau of Justice Statistics, HIV in Prisons, 2000, U.S. Department of Justice; The HIV Law Project, Caring About Women: Priorities for the Ryan CARE Act, February 2000; Centers for Disease Control, HIV/AIDS Among African Americans, Fact Sheet, 1999; Centers for Disease Control, Young People at Risk: HIV/AIDS Among America’s Youth, Fact Sheet, 1998; National Data on HIV/AIDS Prevalence Among Disadvantaged Youth in the 1990s, Centers for Disease Control, September 1998;The Health Status of Soon-To-Be-Released Inmates, National Commission on Correctional Health Care, A Report to Congress, Volume 1.

Contact your local Department of Health for a free HIV/AIDS test. The number may be found in your local telephone directory.