Conflict or Disaster Regions

The impact of conflict is not limited to bloodshed, and natural disasters disrupt far more than the environment.  Tragically, they both perpetuate the spread of HIV. 

The HIV/AIDS crisis is fueled by chaos.  Families and communities are torn apart.  The risk of increasing infection rates is often neglected as agencies concentrate on providing basic needs, water, shelter and the treatment of more immediate disease and infection.  Prevention and care are significantly disrupted, jeopardizing a safe blood supply, creating a shortage of clean injecting equipment for drug users and an insufficient supply of condoms and health care(1).   Further, as infection rates skyrocket, armies in high-conflict areas are unable to keep their soldiers healthy, losing large numbers of them to AIDS, and are unable to recruit new soldiers in a population already suffering under the weight of the disease.

The impact is particularly acute on women and children who make up the largest proportion of refugees and displaced people. Systematic rape as a tool of war and the risk of sexual attack for refugee women and children increase the spread of HIV/AIDS.  Not only are women subjected to violence, they are often powerless to protect their children from infection.  During times of disaster, access to drugs that can stop mother-to-child infection are limited, if available at all.  Too, refugee women have no other choice but to breastfeed, again increasing the chance that they will transmit HIV to their children(2).

In Africa, in particular, the combination of poverty, food shortage and HIV/AIDS fuels even more conflict. This vicious cycle of violence and death makes the inclusion of ‘regions of conflict’ particularly important to the Declaration of Commitment.

Governments recognized that armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters hasten the spread of HIV  among refugees(3), internally displaced people, and women and children(4).   To mitigate this impact, governments outlined a holistic response that addresses all the factors that contribute to the spread of HIV in conflict and disaster situations.

Knowing the devastation caused by conflict and the resulting increase in the spread of HIV, governments committed themselves to(5): 

• By 2003,develop and implement strategies that incorporate HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, care and treatment into responses to emergencies and into international assistance programmes(6).
• Call on United Nations regional, international and nongovernmental organizations that provide assistance in conflicts, humanitarian crises and natural disasters to urgently incorporate HIV/AIDS prevention, care and awareness into their programmes and personnel training(7).
• By 2003, address the spread of HIV in armed services and civil defence and use HIV-trained service personnel to assist in HIV awareness and prevention, including in emergency relief(8).
• By 2003,ensure that all personnel involved in international peacekeeping operations are provided with HIV/AIDS awareness and training, including gender-related, prevention and pre-deployment components(9).

Footnote

(1) General topics of challenge taken from UNAIDS. Exact wording used for no more than a three-word string

(2) SAHIMS, Briefcase #64

(3) Paragraph 12.

(4) Paragraph 75.

(5) There were perfectly worded in Keeping the Promise and, as such, have been copied nearly word for word.

(6) Paragraph 75.

(7) Paragraph 76

(8) Paragraph 77

(9) Paragraph 78.