Daniel J. Whelan

Gender, sexuality and HIV: making a difference in the lives of young women in developing countries

Most new HIV infections are occurring in young people, with young women hit particularly hard in parts of the developing world. This paper explores the impact of gender and sexual norms on young womens sexual experiences, expectations and vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. It argues that the power imbalance characteristic of sexual relations among men and women has many of its roots in adolescence. The data that support these findings were collected from studies conducted in Africa, Latin America, and Asia and the Pacific as part of the Women and AIDS Research Programme of the International Center for Research on Women. The paper concludes with recommendations for educators, therapists, and counsellors who work with young people and their families.

Indivisible Human Rights: A History

Chapter 1. Indivisible, Interdependent, and Interrelated Human Rights Chapter 2. Antecedents of the Universal Declaration Chapter 3. International Guarantees and State Responsibility before the Universal Declaration Chapter 4. From Declaration to Covenant Chapter 5. Including Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights Chapter 6. Division of the Covenant Chapter 7. Indivisibility as Postcolonial Revisionism: 1952-1968 Chapter 8. Indivisibility as Economic Justice: 1968-1986 Chapter 9. Indivisibility as Restoration: 1986-2009 Chapter 10. Indivisible Human Rights: Past and Future Appendix: Covenants on Human Rights: Drafting Procedures and Timeline Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

Yes, a Myth: A Reply to Kirkup and Evans

We suspected that our article would generate controversy since it challenges much of the “received wisdom” about the West’s attitude toward economic and social rights. We thus specifically focused our attention on a decisive, formative historical moment: the founding of the global human rights regime. We argued that the roots of contemporary economic and social rights norms emerged out of domestic US and British policy and practice. Because what is at stake is a matter of fact—namely the attitudes and actions of Western states—we provided extensive evidence and careful, detailed analysis to support our claims. In response, Alex Kirkup and Tony Evans complain that we have presented “a distorted and partial view of the post-war inclusion of economic and social rights within the post-war capitalist order.”1 Our purpose, though, was never to provide any sort of account of integrating human rights into the capitalist world order.2 We argued instead, as the quote at the outset of

The Reality of Western Support for Economic and Social Rights: A Reply to Susan L. Kang

Susan Kang’s reply to our article on the West and economic and social rights accepts our central claim that the widespread view of Western opposition cannot be supported by the evidence. She subtly and usefully, however, shifts the discussion to a secondary claim in our article, namely, Western support for human rights. Kang argues that Western states have been ambivalent about economic and social rights and that the United States has been fundamentally reluctant to accept them. Our response provides substantial evidence of widespread Western support for economic and social rights and critically examines her alleged evidence of reluctance.

Women, AIDS, and development

The global pandemic of HIV disease has now entered its second decade. It is a pandemic out of control, despite programmatic efforts to target behaviors that foster the spread of the virus. The developing world bears the brunt of most new HIV infections. By the year 2000, 85 percent of all HIV infections will have occurred in the global South. Women are becoming infected at an accelerating rate. By the year 2000, the women infected globally by HIV will rise to 50 percent, and even higher in some nations.