Widows
without Rights Conference
London
- 6-7 February, 2001
WIDOWS
and AIDS:
redefinitions and challenges
A presentation by
Bridget Sleap
Panos AIDS
Programme
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Cultural practices - abolish or redefine?
Two
particular practices that are coming increasingly under scrutiny
due to the effect of AIDS are those of widow inheritance and
sexual cleansing. In the era of AIDS, there are fears that
these customs are costing lives, with the widow at risk of
either becoming infected or herself transmitting the virus
to her inheritor who may in turn transmit it to his other
sexual partners. These may include new co-wives, if the new
marriage is polygamous, thereby affecting a potential source
of support for the widow.
Some
believe that where HIV is spread mainly through heterosexual
sex, the epidemic's greatest social transformation will be
in that of relationships between men and women, with women
emerging in a stronger position. However, there is anecdotal
evidence of a backlash, a call to reimpose restrictions on
women in order to strengthen traditional culture, rejecting
so-called western sexual mores and gender roles and in doing
so, curtail the spread of HIV.
Widow
inheritance is one such practice that some feel should be
revived. In Kenya, Luo elders interviewed in Kisumu, where
the adult rate of infection is around 20%, wanted to identify
HIV positive women and impose restrictions on them. These
restrictions would include the practice of widow inheritance
as an attempt to strengthen extended families and care for
the growing number of orphans in their community. The elders
wish to take away the sexual cleansing element of the practice,
and to rename it "symbollic inheritance" . The fear
is that the loss of these customs may penalise widows who
wish, and there are some that do, to be inherited as the alternative
is destitution.
In
Zimbabwe, amongst the Ndau, Tonga and Shangani, it is said
to be flourishing but in neighbouring Zambia there has been
official condemnation of sexual cleansing and grabbing of
property and a wider use of alternative rituals to sexual
cleansing have been observed . In some cases men are said
to have refused to inherit a widow if there was any doubt
about the cause of her husband's death . In some parts of
Tanzania, men are openly questioning widow inheritance and
other indigenous customs . In Uganda, it is said to have decreased
as a result of AIDS .
These
practices, therefore, if not being eliminated, are at least
being held up to scrutiny.
So
whilst on the one hand there is a call for them to be abandoned,
there is also a belief that the best approach is not to abolish
but to make them safe, by removing the sexual element. However,
either as reformers or custodians of traditional culture,
it has been men who have been taking these decisions, in their
own interests, with little or no involvement of the women
themselves.
Human Rights - a change of emphasis
That
the violation of widows' human rights is connected to the
spread of HIV is clear. However we need to be precise about
which rights are being violated and by whom. In the context
of HIV/AIDS they revolve around
· the state's failure to ensure equal access to education
(CRC 28, CEDAW 10);
· failure to remove legal or social barriers to equal
access to healthcare (CEDAW and ICESCR 12);
· failure to take steps necessary for the prevention
of epidemics (ICESCR 12.c);
· failure to modify laws and the social behaviour to
eliminate customary practices that discriminate against women
(CEDAW 2f & 5a);
· failure to take effective measures to abolish all
traditional practices involving children (those under 18)
that are harmful to their health (CRC 24.3);
· and failure to ensure the right to marry who you
please (CEDAW 16, ICCPR 23);
However,
what is less obvious is how to ensure these rights are respected
and the situation of widows improves. Human rights instruments
define the relationship between the individual and the state.
Attempts to bring human rights from the public into the private
sphere where they are most pertinent to women and widows,
have had little success. Unfortunately CEDAW is one of the
least effective of the international instruments, despite
its high ratification rate. There is hope, however, that the
new optional protocol allowing individual complaints will
provide the mandate necessary to take action that as yet has
not been possible.
One
of the positive outcomes of the AIDS epidemic is the way the
disease has brought together health and human rights. Public
health experts now recognise the efficacy of policies that
respect individual rights, which before were sacrificed for
the sake of community health. AIDS activists have focused
on discrimination of marginalised groups, on children and
women's economic and social rights and on the right to health.
The present activism on the right to access to antiretroviral
treatment has done much to focus the rights debate on access
to healthcare and poor health infrastructures in general.
By
addressing it through a rights discourse, HIV/AIDS is no longer
just a scientific or medical issue, but becomes one of national
and international responsibility. Legal proceedings based
on rights violations may be possible in some cases, but more
importantly it is the clear definitions of responsibility
and accountability of human rights that can be used as a force
for change. Stressing the violation of widows' rights in terms
of HIV/AIDS may ensure that the rights of all widows gain
greater public and international attention. Lobbying UN treaty
bodies to examine state reports in terms of rights violations
and HIV transmission is an additional advocacy tool to that
of women's rights alone.
