Struggle Against AIDS in Africa Must Address Impact on Girls and Women

(New York, January 28, 2003) - Sexual abuse of girls in Zambia fuels the
HIV/AIDS epidemic and the strikingly higher HIV prevalence among girls than
boys, Human Rights Watch said today. Concerted national and international
efforts to protect the rights of girls and young women are key to curbing
the AIDS epidemic's destructive course.

Human Rights Watch today releases a new 121-page report, "Suffering in
Silence: Human Rights Abuses and HIV Transmission to Girls in Zambia,"
(http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/zambia/) which details sexual abuse and
other human rights abuses of Zambian girls, especially girls orphaned by
AIDS. The report documents many incidents of abuse of orphan girls at the
hands of their guardians. Some of the girls are as young as 11 years old.

"It is no accident that HIV prevalence is five times higher among girls
than boys under age 18 in Zambia," said Janet Fleischman, Washington
director for Africa Division of Human Rights Watch and author of the
report. "Young girls are preyed upon by older men-including those who dare
call themselves guardians or caretakers of these girls, and the government
fails to protect them."

The United Nations' annual assessment of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, released in
December, emphasized that in Africa "the face of AIDS is clearly a female
face," and noted the much higher rate of HIV transmission among girls than
boys on the continent. The Human Rights Watch report tells the human story
behind this disparity, detailing many ways in which girls in Zambia are
vulnerable to the disease through abuse and subordination.

"Girls orphaned by AIDS face stigma and poverty and too often are unable to
stay in school," Fleischman said. "They may have no recourse but to trade
sex for survival-their own survival and sometimes that of their
siblings-and they are rarely able to negotiate safer sex."

Zambia is not the only country facing this challenge, Fleischman noted. But
with more than one in five adults infected and very high HIV prevalence
among girls and young States' and other donors' development assistance
agenda and HIV/AIDS programs.

women, it illustrates a situation that should be central to the United
Human Rights Watch said laws against sexual violence and abuse are
inadequately enforced in Zambia. The insensitive and ineffectual handling
of sexual violence complaints by the law enforcement system often deters
victims from reporting cases and impedes prosecution of perpetrators.

Zambia is slated to receive $93 million for AIDS programs from the Global
Fund on HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis and $42 million from the World
Bank in the next few years. Other donors, including the United States, have
also given millions for anti-AIDS efforts. Little of this assistance,
however, is targeted to protecting girls from sexual abuse.

Human Rights Watch urged the government of Zambia to intensify training on
addressing sexual abuse for police and court officials, to strengthen
victim support units of the police, and to ensure rigorous prosecution of
perpetrators of these crimes.

"The improvements needed to enforce existing laws against sexual abuse are
not very costly compared to many other elements of AIDS programs," said
Fleischman. "The government and donors have a chance to make a dent in the
hyper-epidemic of HIV transmission among girls by making their protection a
priority."

Human Rights Watch said that when U.S. President George W. Bush finally
makes the trip to Africa that was originally scheduled for January 2003, he
should speak out about this disparity and push for greater U.S. support for
protection of girls from sexual abuse in AIDS-affected countries.

Human Rights Watch Press release