*Ph.D. 1999, Claremont Graduate University; M.A.P. 1997, Claremont Graduate School; J.D. 1992, University of Maryland School of Law; M.A. 1992, George Washington University; M.B.A. 1989, Frostburg State University; B.A. 1989, University of La Verne; G.C.E. Advanced Level 1984, Cameroon College of Arts, Science & Technology; Associate Professor of Law and Assistant Dean of Students, La Verne College of Law, California.
1 As the recent Geneva session on the condition of women worldwide concluded, “The absence of a holistic approach to health and health care for women and girls based on women’s right to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health throughout the life-cycle has constrained progress.” See Report of the Ad Hoc Committee of the Whole of the Twenty-Third Special Session of the General Assembly, Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the Twenty-First Century, U.N. GAOR, 23d Sess., 10, U.N. Doc. A/S-23/10/Rev.1, http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/followup/as2310rev1.pdf (2000) [hereinafter Women 2000]. In addition, the Geneva conferees concluded that a significant obstacle to the realization of women’s right to health has been the lack of a comprehensive approach to women’s health that pays sufficient “attention to the role of social and economic determinants of health.” Id.
2 See Bureau of Oceans & Int’l Envtl. & Scientific Affairs, U.S. Dep’t of St., 1999 U.S. International Response to HIV/AIDS, http://www.state.gov/www/global/ oes/health/1999_hivaids_rpt/issues.html (Mar. 16, 1999) [hereinafter International Response]. Ninety percent of infected women became infected through heterosexual intercourse. Id. Transmission of the virus through sexual intercourse is four times more efficient from men to women than from women to men. Id. Women and girls are biologically more vulnerable than males to infection in part because the female reproductive tract is more susceptible to infection of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Id. Additionally, susceptibility to infections is higher in girls since their genital tract is not fully mature. Id.
3 See Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, AIDS Epidemic Update 1999 at 35, http://hivinsite.ucsf.edu/social/un/2098.44d3.html (1999) [hereinafter AIDS Epidemic Update 1999].
4 Id. at 15.
5 Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic at 11, http://www.unaids.org/epidemic_update/report/Epi_report.pdf (June 2000) [hereinafter UNAIDS Report June 2000].
6 Id.
7 Vice President Al Gore, Remarks at U.N. Security Council Session on AIDS in Africa, http://www.un.int/usa/00_002.html (Jan. 10, 2000) [hereinafter Gore U.N. Remarks] (personifying AIDS as an “aggressor”).
8 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 37. Other factors include military conflict and labour migration that split up families. Id.
9 Id. at 41 (noting that cultural taboos prohibit the open discussion of sex or sexuality in Egyptian society).
10 Id. at 37.
11 Id.
12 Audrey R. Chapman, Conceptualizing the Right to Health: A Violations Approach, 65 Tenn. L. Rev. 389, 407–08 (1998). The economic “disempowerment” of women in African countries is not only tragic, it is also very ironic, considering that these women labor all day long to feed their families. See Press Release GA/SHC/3367, United Nations, Improved Status of Women Necessary to Sustain Economic Growth, Third Committee Told, as Debate Continues on Women’s Issues, http://www.un.org (Oct. 28, 1996) (using search terms “African women” and “economic empowerment”). For example, Miss Illo, representing Niger, notes that although African women in rural areas work an average of seventeen hours per day, there exists a “statistical invisibility which fail[s] to recognize the true value of women’s work in these areas.” Id.
13 Chapman, supra note 12, at 407–08.
14 Allyn L. Taylor, Women’s Health at a Crossroad: Global Responses to HIV/AIDS, 4 Health Matrix 297, 314 (1994).
15 International Response, supra note 2; see also UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 47.
16 International Response, supra note 2.
17 Id.
18 See UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 51.
19 Id. at 51–53.
20 International Response, supra note 2.
21 Id.; see also UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 47–48.
22 International Response, supra note 2.
23 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 47.
24 AIDS Epidemic Update 1999, supra note 3, at 15.
25 Id.
26 Id.
27 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 11.
28 Id. at 48.
29 Id.
30 Taylor, supra note 14, at 315. On average, women become infected about five to ten years earlier than men. See id.
31 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 48–49.
32 See Kirsten M. Backstrom, Note, The International Human Rights of the Child: Do They Protect the Female Child? 30 Geo. Wash. J. Int’l L. & Econ. 541, 545 (1997) (citing Council on Scientific Affairs, Am. Med. Ass’n, Female Genital Mutilation, 274 JAMA 1714 (1995)). Another barbaric practice is the deliberate killing of female children. See Gerald Abraham, Giannella Lecture: The Cry of the Children, 41 Vill. L. Rev. 1345, 1353–54 n.51 (1996) (noting that infanticide is a “gender-related health risk”); Backstrom, supra, at 543–45.
33 See Abraham, supra note 32, at 1353 n.51.
34 See Backstrom, supra note 32, at 545 n.32 (citing Isabella R. Gunning, Arrogant Perception, World-Travelling and Multicultural Feminism: The Case of Female Genital Surgeries, 23 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 189, 189 (1992)).
35 Id. at 546.
36 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 49.
37 Id. at 49–50.
38 Id. at 50.
39 Id.
40 Id.
41 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 50.
42 Id. at 51. Such official malfeasance is by no means limited to developing countries. The recent scandal in which the New York City police ignored the physical assaults, sexual batteries and other indignities heaped on women in Central Park by marauding gangs is just the latest, and perhaps most visible, example. See Associated Press, Some Victims of Central Park Assaults Say Police Ignored Pleas for Help, available at http://www.cnn.com/2000/ US/06/13/central.park.assaults (June 14, 2000).
43 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 51.
44 Id.
45 Chapman, supra note 12, at 408 (citing Nicole Grimm, Combatting Discrimination Against AIDS Patients in Tanzania, 4 Hum. Rts. Brief 2, 21 (1997)).
46 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 39.
47 AIDS Epidemic Update 1999, supra note 3, at 12. For example, a study of the sex industry in Cambodia where the prevalence among sex workers had reached 40% showed that men who were frequent clients of these prostitutes were “passing the infection on to their wives.” UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 46.
48 AIDS Epidemic Update 1999, supra note 3, at 12.
49 Id.
50 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 33.
51 See Statement for the Record Submitted to the House Comm. on Banking and Fin. Servs., http://www.state.gov//www.policy_remarks/2000/000308_holbrooke_hiv-aids.html (Mar. 8, 2000) (statement of Richard Holbrooke, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations) [hereinafter Holbrooke Statement].
52 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 37.
53 Id.
54 Holbrooke Statement, supra note 51.
55 AIDS Epidemic Update 1999, supra note 3, at 12.
56 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 38.
57 Id. Even children get caught up in the stigmatization of AIDS. When some Kenyan children whose parents had died of AIDS were asked about the cause of their parents’ death, “the single most common response was witchcraft or a curse,” and many of these children gave “detailed explanations of the nature of the curse.” Id. at 40.
58 Id. at 38–39.
59 Taylor, supra note 14, at 316.
60 AIDS Epidemic Update 1999, supra note 3, at 12.
61 Id.
62 Chapman, supra note 12, at 402.
63 See Backstrom, supra note 32, at 543 (citing Rebecca J. Cook, Human Rights and Infant Survival: A Case for Priorities, 18 Colum. Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 1, 22–23 (1986)).
64 See Taylor, supra note 14, at 313. The American Public Health Association reports that HIV-infected women are:
often misdiagnosed during the early state of their disease. They lack access to drug treatment, abortion services, AZT and early intervention services and clinical trials. . . . The eligibility of HIV-infected women for disability and health benefits is complicated by criteria which may not reflect the nature of the disease in women.
Id. at 314 n.63.
65 Backstrom, supra note 32, at 543–44.
66 Chapman, supra note 12, at 402.
67 Taylor, supra note 14, at 308.
68 Id.
69 Id. at 305. Taylor notes that women have “largely been excluded from the multi-billion dollar global research agenda on HIV/AIDS.” Id. at 306. Taylor further observes that traditional biomedical research often uses white males for medical research, “as though such diseases or conditions would have the same natural history or response in both men and women.” Id. This practice has resulted in gaps in our knowledge of a disease that affects both sexes. See id.
70 Id. at 309.
71 See id. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that the yearly incidence of gonorrhea, genital chlamydia infections, infectious syphilis and chancroid, exceeds seventy-five million. Id. at 309 n.43 (citing World Health Org., Global Health Situations and Projections at 44, WHO Doc. WHO/HST/92.1 (1992)).
72 Taylor, supra note 14, at 310.
73 Id. at 309 n.42 (citing Effects of the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) on the Advancement of Women, Commission on the Status of Women, 33d. Sess., Provisional Hearing 5(b) at 9–10, U.N. ESCOR Doc. E/CN.6/1989/6/Add.1 (1989)). Women tend to receive more blood transfusions than men because of post-partum hemorrhage, ectopic pregnancies, crudely induced abortions, and as a treatment for anemia caused by repeated pregnancies. Id.
74 Backstrom, supra note 32, at 548.
75 Id. at 548 n.58 (citing Education for All, UNESCO Courier, Jan. 1983, at 11). For example, in Zaire, female children spend just about 33% as much time in school as do male children. See id. (citing Steven Greenhouse, State Deptartment Finds Widespread Abuse of World’s Women, N.Y. TIMES, Feb. 3, 1994, at A1).
76 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 42.
77 Id.
78 Id. at 47.
79 Id. at 47–48.
80 Id. at 42.
81 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 44.
82 Chapman, supra note 12, at 403. For example, in extreme cases, Apartheid South Africa “segregated public hospitals and allocated significantly more funds per capita to health care for whites than for blacks.” Id. The Apartheid regime also limited black enrollment in medical schools, and black students were disadvantaged by an inferior educational system. Id.
83 See Taylor, supra note 14, at 310.
84 See Aart Hendriks, The Right to Health: Promotion and Protection of Women’s Right to Sexual and Reproductive Health Under International Law: The Economic Covenant and Women’s Convention, 44 Am. U. L. Rev. 1123, 1128 (1995).
85 G.A. Res. 217 (III 1948), reprinted in Basic Documents Supplement to International Law 143, 145 (Louis Henkin et al. eds., 1993) [hereinafter Basic Documents].
86 Id.
87 See Alastair T. Illes, The Human Genome Project: A Challenge to the Human Rights Framework, 9 Harv. Hum. Rts. J. 27, 36 (1996).
88 See J.M. Spectar, The Fruit of the Human Genome Tree, Cautionary Tales About Technology, Investment & the Heritage of Humankind, 23:1 Loy. L.A. Int’l & COMP. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2001) [hereinafter Spectar, Fruit of the Human Genome Tree].
89 G.A. Res. 217, supra note 85, reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 143. Similarly, Article 6 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights posits that “[e]very human being has the inherent right to life.” G.A. Res. 2200, 21 U.N. GAOR, Supp. 16, at 52, U.N. Doc. A/6316 (1967), reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 151, 153.
90 Hendriks, supra note 84, at 1129. To ensure the realization of this right, the WHO has launched an ambitious “health for all campaign.” See generally David P. Fidler, Neither Science Nor Shamans: Globalization of Markets and Health in the Developing World, 7 Ind. J. Global Legal Stud. 191, 194 (1999).
91 G.A. Res. 2200, supra note 89, reprinted in Basic Documents supra note 85, at 146, 149.
92 Id.
93 Id. at 150.
94 European Social Charter, done Oct. 18, 1961, Europ. T.S. No. 35, reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 248, 253. The European Social Charter states that anyone without adequate resources has the right to social and medical assistance and everyone has the right to benefit from social welfare services. Id. at 248. With a view to ensuring the effective exercise of this right, the parties undertake: “to ensure that any person who is without adequate resources and who is unable to secure such resources either by his own efforts or from other sources, in particular by benefits under a social security scheme, be granted adequate assistance, and, in case of sickness, the care necessitated by his condition.” Id. at 253. Meanwhile, Article 16 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights states that everyone shall have “the right to enjoy the best attainable state of physical and mental health” and the parties to the Charter “shall take all the necessary measures to protect the health of their people and to ensure that they receive medical attention when they are sick.” African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, adopted June 27, 1981, 21 I.L.M. 58, reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 311, 313. Similarly, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man states, “[e]very person has the right to the preservation of his health through sanitary and social measures relating to food, clothing, housing and medical care, to the extent permitted by public and community resources.” American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, adopted May 2, 1948, reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 287, 288.
95 G.A. Res. 180, U.N. GAOR (1979), 19 I.L.M. 33 (1980), reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 174–80. Unfortunately, of all the human rights treaties, the Convention has the most reservations, including some that have the potential of modifying or of excluding core provisions of the treaty. See Taylor, supra note 14, at 321 (citing Belinda Clark, The Vienna Convention Reservations Regime and the Convention on Discrimination Against Women, 85 Am. J. Int’l. L. 281, 282–83 (1991)). During the debates leading to the Convention, some states claimed their reservations were “dictated by cultural and religious norms” with some reservations relating to the purported “incompatibility of gender equality with Islamic law or national customs which restrict women’s inheritance and property rights and limit women’s employment opportunities.” Id. at 321.
96 See G.A. Res. 180, supra note 95, reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 177–78.
97 Id. at 177.
98 Id. at 176.
99 Id. at 175.
100 Hendriks, supra note 84, at 1128 (citing Virginia Leary, Implications of a Right to Health, in Human Rights in the Twenty-First Century: A Global Challenge 481–93 (Kathleen E. Mahoney & Paul Mahoney eds., 1993)).
101 Fidler, supra note 90, at 193.
102 See generally Human Rights in the World Community 18–19 (Richard Pierre Claude & Burns Weston eds., 1989).
103 See Allyn L. Taylor, Globalization and Biotechnology: UNESCO and an International Strategy to Advance Human Rights and Public Health, 25 Am. J.L. & Med. 479, 504 n.209 (1999).
104 See id.
105 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 30.
106 Id.
107 Id.
Reproductive health therefore implies that people are able to have a satisfying and safe sex life and that they have the capability to reproduce and the freedom to decide if, and when and how often to do so. Implicit in this last condition are the right of men and women to be informed and to have access to safe effective, affordable and acceptable methods of family planning of their choice . . . and the right of access to appropriate health-care services . . . .
Id.
108 David P. Fidler, International Law and Global Public Health, 48 U. Kan. L. Rev. 1, 41 (1999).
109 Id. at 43 (citing Lawrence O. Gostin & Zita Lazzarini, Human Rights and Public Health in the AIDS Pandemic 29 (1997)).
110 See id. (noting that government obligations under a right to health approach must include clean air, sanitation, housing and education).
111 In addition, chronic poverty and persistent or recurring conflict constitute systematic impairments of health and well-being, as well as gross infringements upon the right to health. The right to health cannot be meaningfully realized when governments and, in certain cases, the international community, fail to eradicate poverty and fail to support comprehensive primary education for all. See, e.g., J.M. Spectar, The Hybrid Horseman of the Apocalypse, the Global AIDS Pandemic & the North-South Fracas, Ga. J. Int’l & Comp. L. (forthcoming Spring 2001) [hereinafter Spectar, Hybrid Horseman] (discussing the implications of the apparent link between pestilence and acute underdevelopment).
112 Women 2000, supra note 1, at 10.
113 Id.
114 Elsewhere, I have argued that in social and economic conditions characterized by abject poverty and perpetual civil strife or war—as is often the case in the vortex of the pandemic—the right to health is effectively devoid of meaning. See generally Spectar, Hybrid Horseman, supra note 111.
115 Women 2000, supra note 1, at 23.
116 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 111.
117 Id. at 51.
118 Id. at 53.
119 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 22–25.
120 Press Release, Statement of Peter Kasanda, Security Council Holds Debate on Impact of AIDS on Peace and Security in Africa, at http://www.un.org/News/Press.html (Jan. 10, 2000) (Press Release SC/6781) [hereinafter Security Council Holds Debate].
121 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 42.
122 Id. at 11.
123 Id. at 10.
124 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 49.
125 Id. at 64. A survey of men in South Africa revealed that while 50% of them were inclined to use a condom, only 16% actually did so because they did not always have a condom handy. Id.
126 Id. at 63. Since the female condom is several times more expensive than the male condom, many women are unable to procure this vital, potentially life-saving device. Id. Nevertheless, since 1996, a special agreement between UNAIDS and the Female Health Company, the sole manufacturer of the female condom, has made the female condom available to several governments and to other public agencies. Id. The female condom is very important to the empowerment of women—such empowerment being a pre-condition for the realization of women’s right to health. Id. The female condom reduces the need for negotiation (where the woman is often at a disadvantage) and, it is reported, “can be used even when a man has an incomplete erection,” as may be the case with drunken and/or potentially violent “partners.” Id. Surveys have shown that people who are drunk are less likely to use condoms, thus highlighting the importance of the female condom for protecting the woman from possible infection. Id. at 62.
127 See International Response, supra note 2. Topical microbicides are chemical barriers that, if properly applied, can inhibit HIV infection. Id. While their effectiveness is limited, microbicides are needed due to the “high prevalence of nonconsensual sex, lack of condom use, and the need for reproductive choices.” Id. Additionally, effective microbicides can facilitate conception while preventing infection of HIV and other STDs. Id.
128 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 72.
129 Id. at 73. Many of these approaches will not yield immediate results, and measurable impact may take four to five years to develop. Id. at 111. Yet, a key component of an effective national response is the adoption of a “long-term and sustained response” designed to build resistance to AIDS in demographic and age groups over time. Id. In addition, governments and international organizations must build on what has worked in the past, taking advantage of what UNAIDS refers to as the “best practice” from successful HIV interventions or projects. See id. at 112. The ability to learn from experience is thus a key component of any effective plan to combat the pandemic. See id.
130 Id. at 79 (noting that HIV testing and counseling facilities in the developing world are far from adequate).
131 Id. at 81. A USAID-funded clinical trial conducted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Thailand Ministry of Health determined transmissions from mother to child could be reduced by 50% by giving the drug AZT to mothers during the last four weeks of pregnancy and during labor and delivery. See International Response, supra note 2.
132 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 81 (noting that these measures have reduced mother-to-child transmission of the virus). Australia has promised to fund a regional “optimal feeding practices” project to reduce mother-to-child transmissions in southern Africa. See Security Council Holds Debate, supra note 120.
133 See UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 35. For example, interviews conducted in engineering and construction companies in Gaborone, Botswana found resistance to prevention initiatives, albeit 39% of city workers were HIV-positive. Id. at 33. Initiatives led by businesses involving a mix of education, counseling and condom distribution are yielding some success at Volkswagen in Brazil, American International Insurance of Thailand, the Tata Iron and Steel Company of India, and the Botswana Business Coalition on AIDS. Id. at 34–35. Strong workplace prevention programs have also been shown to reduce HIV transmission and associated costs in factories in Zimbabwe. Id. at 35.
134 See id. at 36 (suggesting that governments encourage companies in the private sector to invest in HIV prevention in the workforce).
135 Id. Botswana is considering such a measure. See id.
136 Id. at 68. See generally Spectar, Fruit of the Human Genome Tree, supra note 88 (suggesting that a prospective Human Genome Fund should devote some resources to developing an AIDS therapy or an affordable vaccine).
137 Women 2000, supra note 1, at 47.
138 Id. at 40.
139 Id. at 7.
140 See id. at 10.
141 See id.
142 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 14.
143 See id.
144 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 113.
145 Women 2000, supra note 1, at 10.
146 Id. at 7–8.
147 Id. at 39.
148 See id.
149 Id. at 8.
150 For example, the World Bank has made education for young girls a top priority going forward into the twenty-first century. This goal is especially important because about 125 million primary school age children are still not in school. See The World Bank Group, Fact Sheets, Education For All, at http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pb /pbeduc.html (last visited July 21, 2000). In the 1990s, about 8% of the Bank’s new lending was devoted to education, with a significant portion directed at basic education initiatives. Id.
151 See UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 42 (noting that “in general people with more education lead healthier, more productive lives”). A UNAIDS analysis of the results of studies conducted among fifteen- to nineteen-year-olds in seventeen African and fourteen Latin American counties found that “better-educated girls tend to start having sex later.” Id. at 43. The proportion of girls who were sexually active by the age of eighteen was 24% lower among girls with a secondary school education compared to girls with only a primary school education. Id. The emphasis on education should also include significant improvements in higher education in developing countries. The Task Force on Higher Education and Society, an autonomous group of experts convened by UNESCO found that:
[h]igher education in developing countries is inadequate and falling further behind . . . . [I]t is generally overcrowded, chronically under-funded, poorly managed, and beset with inadequate faculty and curricula . . . . Demand for higher education is rising rapidly, compounding the challenges for countries that hope to improve quality, reduce public cost, and increase access to all strata.
See Press Release, World Bank Group, Higher Education Key to Knowledge Economy, http://www.wbln0018.worldbank.org/news/pressrelease.nsf (last visited July 12, 2000). The Task Force calls the situation a “crisis,” and it emphasizes the need for a “holistic approach to education policy” that includes viewing higher education as a “vital part of their overall human development strategy.” Id. The Task Force argues that higher education is a pre-condition for overcoming a wide range of problems, including persistent poverty and economic under-performance. Id. The Task Force suggests specific areas for emphasis by developing countries, including improving scientific and technological capacity and respecting principles of good governance. Id. In launching the Task Force’s Report, James Wolfensohn, World Bank President, noted that institutions of higher learning that train “well-educated people” in the developing world are key to confronting “staggering problems [such] as the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the need to build up infrastructure and telecommunications.” Id.
152 Women 2000, supra note 1, at 9.
153 Id. at 26.
154 Id. at 41
155 Id. at 36.
156 See J.M. Spectar, Bridging the Global Digital Divide, Frameworks for Access & the World Wireless Web, 26:1 N.C. J. Int’l L. & Com. Reg. 57, 59–65, 90–103 (2000). The “digital divide” is the differentiation between those with access to the essential tools of the information society/knowledge economy and those without, especially where the latter are deprived due to structural economic and social factors largely beyond their control. Id. It is a growing gulf between those who enjoy access to the infrastructure of the networked society/economy and those who are deprived of access. Id. There is a growing consensus that this divide is both reflective and symptomatic of extant economic and social barriers. Id. Discussion of the digital divide tends to focus on the differential technology penetration between middle/upper income groups versus lower income persons, racial minorities and rural communities. Id. Yet, some maintain that the digital divide is about more than just socio-economic barriers to participating in the new economy; they urge policy makers to consider and address other related “gaps” such as the gender gap in technology. Id.; see also U.S. Nat’l Telecomms. & Info. Admin., Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide, at http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/digitaldivide/summit.html (Dec. 9, 1999). Summit participant, Mr. Arthur Tighe, encouraged policy makers to examine related ‘gaps’ such as gender, geography, and generational differences. See id.
157 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 36.
158 Id. at 39.
159 Id. at 28.
160 See id. at 33, 38.
161 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 110 (noting that “responses to AIDS are in the first instance local[,]” and that they imply the involvement of people in their neighborhoods, workplaces, schools and religious centers).
162 Id. at 88, 110–11.
163 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 47.
164 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 7. As Peter Piot, the executive director of UNAIDS states, “while international political, financial and technical support are important, lowering incidence and mitigating the epidemic’s impacts must be a nationally driven agenda.” Id.
165 See id. at 108 (identifying political will and leadership as key components of an effective national response to the pandemic).
166 See Gore U.N. Remarks, supra note 7.
167 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 108 (identifying societal openness and determination to fight against stigma as key components of an effective national response to the pandemic).
168 Id. at 42. The extraordinary success of an AIDS hotline in Egypt has provided a safe forum to discuss issues rarely addressed in public. Id. This is reportedly the only such hotline run by a government service in the Middle East. Id.
169 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 35.
170 See id. at 36–37.
171 UNAIDS Report June 2000, supra note 5, at 9.
172 Id.
173 Id. The prevalence rate among teenage boys remained more or less stable. Id. The infection rate among boys is generally lower than girls’ infection rate because “boys are less likely than girls to have partners in the older, more heavily infected age groups . . . .” Id.
174 Id. at 10.
175 Id. at 38. In fact, the mounting death toll caused Presidents Arap Moi and Yoweri Museveni to reverse their long-standing opposition to condoms. See generally id.
176 See International Response, supra note 2 (discussing U.S. national interests). The Council, chaired by the Secretary of State, is charged with coordinating the implementation of the Platform for Action adopted at the U.N. Fourth Conference on Women. The Council also encourages both women and men “to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behavior.” Id.
177 See id.
178 See Hendriks, supra note 84, at 1124.
179 Taylor, supra note 14, at 305.
180 Id. at 303.
181 Id. at 298.
182 Id.
183 Id. at 304 n.26 (citing Susan Sherwin, No Longer Patient: Feminist Ethics and Healh Care 167, 193–94 (1992)).
184 Taylor, supra note 14, at 304.
185 Id.
186 Hendriks, supra note 84, at 1124.
187 Id. at 1125.
188 Id.
189 Fidler, supra note 90, at 2 (noting that public health antipathy toward international law is changing, and that the “globalization of public health” gives rise to the need for more international cooperation between states).
190 See Hoffman, Duties Beyond Borders 97 (1981) (citing Ronald Dworkin, Taking Rights Seriously 92 (1978)). Rights accorded the status of jus cogens cannot be defeated by appeals to the “routine goals of political administration.” Id. It is not uncommon for writers to seek to increase the list of peremptory norms jus cogens. See, e.g., Diller & Levy, Child Labor, Trade and Investment: Toward the Harmonization of International Law, 91 Am. J. Int’l L. 663, 664 (1997) (arguing that certain “extreme forms of child labor can be said to come within the scope of jus cogens, customary law and common treaty obligations relevant, in particular, to slavery, labor, and human rights”). See generally J.M. Spectar, Pay Me Fairly Kathie Lee! The WTO, the Right to a Living Wage & a Proposed Protocol, 20 N.Y.L Sch. J. Int’l & Comp. L. 61 (2000) (suggesting that the human right to a living wage may someday be accorded the status of a peremptory norm jus cogens).
191 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 42.
192 Id. at 26.
193 To be sure, many legal positivists would express serious concern about another new- fangled jus cogens norm, seeing it as another instance of licentious norm creation. See, e.g., Prosper Weil, Towards Relative Normativity in International Law, 77 Am. J. Int’l L. 413, 421–22 (1983) (arguing that the libertine elevation of certain norms over others—through designations such as jus cogens or obligations erga omnes—leads to norm dilution and a dimunition of respect for norms). Id. It is contended that these new norms are entirely bereft of “legal value,” and they pertain instead “to the realm of politics and morality.” See International Law and Development 98 (Paul de Waart ed., 1988). The positivist view is echoed in the Lotus case: “the rules of law binding upon states . . . emanate from their own free will.” Weil, supra, at 420 (quoting 1927 PCIJ, ser. A., No. 10, at 18). To be sure, wanton norm creation would indeed erode respect for norms. Yet, it can hardly be argued that the creation of a new norm jus cogens to save life on earth is unduly forward.
194 See Women 2000, supra note 1, at 13.
195 See id.
196 Id. at 13.
197 Id. at 27, 38.
198 Id. at 12; see, e.g., G.A. Res. 180, supra note 95, reprinted in Basic Documents, supra note 85, at 177–78; see also The Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, U.N. Diplomatic Conf. of the Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an ICC, U.N. Doc. A/CONF.183/9 (1998) (providing that rape, sexual slavery, enforced prostitution, forced pregnancy, enforced sterilization and other forms of sexual violence are “war crimes” when committed in the context of armed conflict and, also under certain circumstances, “crimes against humanity”). Meanwhile, international organizations should also encourage states to include a gender perspective in their reports to treaty bodies. Women 2000, supra note 1, at 13.
199 Women 2000, supra note 1, at 42.
200 See generally J.M. Spectar, Saving the Ice Princess: NGOs, Antarctica & International Law in the New Millennium, 23 Suffolk Transnat’l L. Rev. 57, 96–99 (1999) (noting that as states recede in influence, NGOs and other non-state entities linked by the world wide web and other communications technologies are likely to be at the vanguard of global change in the new millennium). See also J.M. Spectar, The Promise of Global Society, Multi-level Partnerships & the Possibilities of Post-International Relations (forthcoming 2001) (arguing that a pluralistic network or framework of partnerships between state and non-state inter-actors is needed to manage the critical challenges facing global society).