• Economic factors

Economic factors that increase women's vulnerability

This paper argues that women are becoming infected with HIV because the state is failing to protect them from domestic violence. It bases the report on 120 interviews with Ugandan women.

The paper argues that many women are victims of marital rape. Women were also powerless to protect themselves from infection and are unable to access HIV/AIDS services because their husbands physically attacked, threatened, and intimidated them, and did so with impunity. Most women saw domestic violence as innate to marriage, and viewed sex with their husbands as a marital obligation. Despite a rhetorical commitment to women’s rights, the Ugandan government has failed in any meaningful way to criminalise, condemn, or prosecute violence against women in the home.

Recommendations to the Government of Uganda include:

• enact and enforce laws and regulations prohibiting discrimination against women to bring Ugandan practices into accord with international human rights standards and constitutional provisions
• amend or repeal all laws that violate women’s rights in marriage including discriminatory provisions under the Divorce Act
• eliminate provisions of the Domestic Relations Bill and the Sexual Offences (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill that hold husbands immune from prosecution for marital rape and amend the bills to provide for a legal cause of action for rape within marriage
• with the above amendments, enact without delay the Domestic Relations Bill and the Sexual Offences (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill
• make domestic violence a central component of efforts to reduce women’s vulnerability to HIV/AIDS under the National Strategic Framework for HIV/AIDS Activities: 2000/1-2005/6, and other national HIV/AIDS programs
• collect and disseminate comprehensive national statistics on domestic violence detailing the nature and degree of violence, rates of prosecution and conviction, and the nature of punishment applicable, in a timely and transparent manner
• improve the distribution of male condoms. Improve distribution and access to female condoms. Increase awareness of HIV reinfection

To Donors and Regional and International Organisations:

• the secretary-general of the United Nations, UNAIDS, UNDP, UNIFEM, UNICEF, UNFPA, and UNHCHR should engage in widespread advocacy in Africa and internationally on the links between domestic violence and HIV/AIDS and stress the incorporation of a rights-based approach in HIV/AIDS programming
• UNAIDS and UNDP programs operating in Uganda should examine the role of domestic violence in furthering the AIDS epidemic. UNDP-Uganda should maintain an emphasis on gender and HIV/AIDS pursuant to the Second Country Cooperation Framework for Uganda (2001-2005)

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