title: Gender, race + geography = jeopardy: marginalized women, human rights and HIV in the United States.
abstract: Across the United States, laws, policies, and practices put women living with HIV in jeopardy. In particular, the dignity, health, and well-being of women living with and at risk for HIV as well as the health and well-being of their families and communities is hampered by punitive laws and policies. Laws and policies that do not meet, or worse, criminalize women's sexual and reproductive rights result in the economic, social and political deprivation of marginalized women and girls-and especially those living with and at risk of HIV. These laws and policies exacerbate an already outsized HIV epidemic in underserved communities, and communities of color in the United States. This article draws from and builds on a human rights workshop that took place as part of the forum "Bringing Gender Home: Implementing Gender Responsive HIV/AIDS Programming for US Women and Girls," sponsored by the Office of Women's Health. It focuses on the damaging impact of laws, policies, and practices that criminalize women's sexuality. These laws significantly impact the well-being of women living with and at risk for HIV, and have an impact on the capacity of poor women of color in the United States to fully exercise their rights. When laws that purport to protect public health have the result of limiting women's reproductive choices, or have a disproportionate impact on marginalized groups such as sex workers, fundamental breaches of women's rights occur.
authors: United Nations Development Programme, HIV/AIDS Practice, Bureau for Development Policy, New York, New York, USA. susana.fried@gmail.com
authors: Susana T
authors: ST
authors: Fried
authors: Brook
authors: B
authors: Kelly
mesh_terms: D002961:Civil Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D003415:Crime; D003416:Criminal Law; D058872:Epidemics; D005260:Female; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000208:ethnology; D006291:Health Policy; D054624:Health Status Disparities; D006801:Humans; D011203:Poverty; D044469:Racial Groups; D012098:Reproduction; D019529:Sexuality; D012923:Social Class; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D035862:Vulnerable Populations; D016387:Women's Health; D014933:Women's Rights / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*