Gender and human rights dimensions of HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

Abstract

Until very recently, researchers paid little attention to sex or gender issues in HIV/AIDS. When differences between females and males on health matters were considered at all the focus was clearly on womens' reproductive lives and not on factors affecting the spread of the disease. There was hardly any consideration of the influence of inequalities on the spread of HIV/AIDS and on outcomes of infection between the sexes. Hitherto, health policies and programmes focused on biological aspects of diagnosis, treatment and prevention. In this paper, the author seeks to provide an understanding of the social factors as well as identification of the capacity of human rights to develop an effective response to the disease. It is a gender perspective on human rights with specific implications for women in the context of HIV/AIDS.