[Press Kit]

Call to Action 1 December 1999

Call to Action

1 December 1999

Background

The new millennium dawns on a world facing an
unprecedented human tragedy - the loss of millions
of people to the AIDS epidemic. More than 16.3
million people have died. By the end of the year
2000, a cumulative total of 13 million children will
have lost their mother or both parents to AIDS, and
10.4 million of them will still be under the age of 15.
More than 90 per cent of children orphaned
by AIDS are in sub-Saharan Africa, and the numbers
are increasing daily. In the next decade, the numbers
of orphans are also expected to increase in Asia, the
Americas, Central and Eastern Europe and the
countries of the Commonwealth of Independent
States. In industrialized countries, deaths have
declined significantly, but AIDS remains a deadly
menace in the absence of an effective cure.
The onslaught of AIDS on people of
reproductive age is increasing the numbers of
orphans at such a rate that communities cannot rely
on traditional means of caring for these children. This
is particularly true in many sub-Saharan African
countries lacking adequate basic social welfare
services. The inability of communities to respond
adequately and appropriately to the situation has
resulted in social, psychological and economic
deprivation for the children, and this is likely to
continue for the long term. Such deprivation is worse
for girls whose parents have died, as these girls often
have to care for their siblings and take on extra work,
thereby reducing their opportunities for schooling.
Of course, AIDS affects children long
before their parents die. The toll taken by the disease
begins during the period of illness, continues through
death and bereavement and will likely persist into
adulthood if adequate support and protection are
lacking. These extremely vulnerable children can
suffer myriad problems and human rights abuses: the
terrible stress of watching parents fall ill and die,
grief for lost family members; a decline in nutritional
status; loss of health care; increased demands for
their labour; reduced opportunities for education; loss
of inheritance; homelessness; discrimination;
physical abuse; and sexual abuse, which in turn
exposes them to HIV infection.
The absence of parental protection and care,
combined with HIV-related illnesses, has contributed
significantly to the increase in deaths of children

under five in the countries most affected. AIDS has
undermined the capacity of communities and
households to cope and is hindering efforts to achieve
goals for the survival and development of children,
including the year 2000 goals agreed to by world
leaders at the 1990 World Summit for Children.
Specific needs of children and families affected by
HIV/AIDS
The onset of AIDS, in many developing countries,
marks the beginning of a transition from poverty to
complete destitution. The reality is most bleak in the
worst-affected areas of sub-Saharan Africa, where
over 50 per cent of the population lives below the
poverty line.
Despite many obstacles, however,
threatened communities around the world are
struggling to support orphans and families affected
by HIV and AIDS. However, among the constraints
are the sheer numbers of orphans, which have the
potential to overwhelm these efforts, the urban focus
of many programmes, which therefore reach
relatively few people, and limited coordination with
government. These constraints have prevented the
needs and rights of many children and families from
being addressed.
With the relentless toll of AIDS reducing the
ability of families and communities to support and
care for children, we now face troubling scenarios:
grandmothers struggling to care for orphans;
households headed by children, many of them
primary-school age, who are caring for younger
siblings; and worse, children with nowhere at all to
turn. Often compounding the devastation caused by
AIDS is armed conflict, which poses the additional
challenges of forced migration, displaced populations
and further violations of rights.
These multiple crises surrounding AIDS call
for the urgent and full engagement of all levels of
society, which have a guide for action in two key
international conventions: the Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC), ratified by 191 countries,
and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms
of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), ratified
by 165 countries as of November 1999. By ratifying,
countries have made themselves accountable for
addressing the rights and needs of children and
women, including those affected by HIV or AIDS.

Issued by UNAIDS, UNICEF and BLCA

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