Women's Rights are human rights - The right to adequate health care

By, Jamaica Gleaner, March 31, 2008

Many women and girls in Jamaica who are infected with HIV face discrimination. Some children living with HIV/AIDS report that they cannot trust caregivers for fear that their personal information will be revealed to others.
Some 20,000 children in Jamaica are affected by HIV/AIDS and young women in the Caribbean between 15 and 24 are up to six times more likely to be infected with HIV than men.

CEDAW recommends that the Jamaican Government target adolescents to combat HIV/AIDS, adopt measures or get rid of discrimination against women and girls infected with HIV, and raise awareness of issues related to women's health, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights.

The August 2006 report on Jamaica of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted that while the Government of Jamaica was to be commended on its work on HIV and AIDS prevention and improvement of women's sexual health and reproductive rights, the Committee noted, with concern, the increasingly high rates of HIV/AIDS infection in adolescent girls.

The committee called on the Jamaican Government to monitor, systematically, women's access to health care, including primary and secondary health-care services, and to desegregate such data by urban and rural areas, and by age, and use such data as a basis for planning health-care delivery.

Noting that abortion is one of the five leading causes of maternal mortality, and noting the existence of the 1975 Ministry of Health policy on abortion, the committee expressed concern that the policy is not widely known or implemented, and services for the provision of safe abortions may not be available.

The committee also requested that the state adopt measures to eliminate discrimination against women and girls infected with HIV/AIDS.

Excerpted from 'CEDAW for Jamaicans', produced by the Women's Resource and Outreach Centre, Kingston, and the August 2006 report on Jamaica of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women 36th session. Email wroc@cwjamaica.com.

Source: http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080331/flair/flair2.html