The Armenian Relief Society and the UN Commission on the Status of Women

NEW YORK--The 45th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) took place at the United Nations from March 6-16. Two thematic issues were on the agenda. The first was HIV/AIDS as it concerns women and the girl child, specifically the dimension of the pandemic, the activities at the international level with regard to gender and HIV/AIDS, human security and human rights issues, as well as recommendations.

The second was gender and all forms of discrimination, specifically racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, particularly timely issues given the upcoming Conference on Racism in South Africa. The CSW also formulated a multi-year work program for 2002-2005. Many NGOs addressed specific HIV and gender and racial discrimination issues throughout the conference and urged member states to incorporate these issues into their national policies.

With respect to HIV/AIDS, many NGOs discussed their projects to educate girls and young women about safe sex at the community level, especially schools, and to lobby governments to make contraception more accessible since girls and young women are especially vulnerable to contracting the disease given the prevalence of early marriage, prostitution, trafficking of young women, and lack of knowledge due to religious or cultural attitudes concerning sex education.

The ARS participated on a panel by the Youth Caucus titled "On the Front Lines Model Youth Program in the Global Struggle to Stop the Spread of HIV/AIDS." Anahid Ugurlayan from the ARS, presented the HIV/AIDS situation in the Transcaucasus and preventive measures taken at the national level, with the assistance of United Nations organizations. The text of her talk appears on the next page.