A critical reflection on the African Women's Protocol as a means to combat HIV/AIDS among women in Africa

Abstract

"It is this very 'toll on women and girls' that seems to be the persistent challenge in addressing and responding to HIV and AIDS realities. Infection rates remian to be on the rise, prevention messages seem to bypass the ones it is meant to 'protect', stigma and discrimination experienced by people living with, and affected by, HIV and AIDS prevail, instead of subside, and it is women and girl children who remain, and are increasingly, the ones who are disproportionately impacted upon and affected by the pandemic. It is within this context of the persistent feminisation of the HIV and AIDS pandemic that this study, based on the normative provisions of the African Women's Protocol, focusses on gender, sex and sexuality in the context of HIV and AIDS. The regime of the African Women's Protocol embodies a framework that can be utilised to combat HIV/AIDS amongst women in Africa by addressing some of the most important issues that need to be tackled if women are to live through the epidemic. The study therefore seeks to demonstrate this potential. ... The study is stratified into four chapters. Chapter one provides the background to the study. It also contextualizes the study and sets its paradigm. Chapter two explores the current normative regimes, regional and international that are relevant to the analysis of the study. It is mainly critical, pointing out their inadequacies and a few strengths in relation to confronting the challenges faced by young women in Africa in the face of HIV/AIDS. It suggests a few recommendations. Chapter three explores the possibilities for solutions under the transformative provisions of the African Women's Protocol. This chapter is the heart and pith of the study. Chapter four discusses the practical challenges that the normative approach may encounter, especially because of the nature of some of the rights pivotal to the study: socio-economic rights. Chapter four also discusses legal, regulatory and policy recommendations. The chapter concludes by calling upon states to respect their obligations under the African Women's Protocol." -- Introduction.