Fourth Congressional Briefing on

THE GLOBAL CHALLENGE OF HIV/AIDS:
The Impact of Gender Disparities on the Growth and Spread of HIV/AIDS

Thursday March 30, 2006

Opening Comments by the Honorable Congressman Tom Lantos

• I want to welcome you to this very important event on how gender disparities affect the growth and spread of HIV/AIDS. Each year, the International Film and Television Exchange joins the Congressional Human Rights Caucus to host a film screening and seminar on a critical theme related to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This year, we're paying special attention to the plight of women and girls in the fight against AIDS.
• The HIV/AIDS pandemic affects women and girls profoundly due to the compounding factors of gender-based inequality, poverty, food insecurity, unequal access to education, and poor health care.
• According to the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, the number of women and girls infected with HIV has increased in every region of the world in the past two years, with rates rising particularly rapidly in Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America. In sub-Saharan Africa alone women and girls already make up almost 60% of adults living with HIV.
• Many women who are infected, or are at risk of becoming infected, do not practice high-risk behaviors. But the behavior of their husbands or partners frequently makes them vulnerable, as do the economic circumstances that compel some women and girls to sell their bodies.
• I had the privilege to lead the effort in Congress authorizing the $15-billion presidential AIDS initiative that placed the United States government in the lead globally in the fight against AIDS. And we have gone a long way addressing the pandemic since it first emerged.
• However, there is much more to do, and we are fortunate to have nongovernmental organizations and trained professionals all over the world who have dedicated to end this human scourge. We are joined by some of them today, representing some of the best human resources we have to combat this disease.
• Friends and colleagues, I urge all of us to continue working tirelessly until HIV/AIDS no longer threatens the very survival of communities and nations.
• Before introducing the moderator of today's conference, I would like to thank especially the International Film and Television Exchange -- and in particular, Professor Claus Mueller. Without Professor Mueller, the annual Caucus conferences on HIV/AIDS would not be possible, and we all are indebted to him for his outstanding work.
• Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great pleasure now that I introduce a great human rights advocate as today's moderator. Holly Burkhalter is known to most of you as the U.S. Policy Director of Physicians for Human Rights, and through her work with Human Rights Watch. But Holly also had a distinguished career here in Congress, serving on the House Human Rights Subcommittee from 1981 to 1983. Holly regularly testifies before the Human Rights Caucus, and she once worked for our current Senate Co-Chair Tom Harkin when he served in the House. Holly, welcome back, and the floor is yours.