Women’s Link Worldwide announced their Gender Justice Uncovered Awards to identify the best and the worst judicial decisions related to gender justice in Spain, Latin America, and the Caribbean.

Caryle Murphy of the Global Post reports on the challenges of sexism faced by athletic women in Saudi Arabia.

The United Nations released a new action framework, UNAIDS Action Framework on Universal Access for Men who have Sex with Men and for Transgender People.

In a new report, the Guttmacher Institute reconsiders the withdrawal method as a contraceptive technique.

And here on Akimbo, we blogged about
…our partner Bene Madunaga, who Our Bodies, Ourselves named to their list of 20 Women’s Health Heroes.

…the Iranian campaign against women’s rights advocates like Alieh Eghdamdoost.

…an all-male panel and webcast on global health hosted by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

…Nigerians organizing their First Annual International Day Against Homophobia, which happens this Sunday, May 17th.

…a troubling trend in Kisumu, Kenya, where youth are reportedly having lots of unprotected sex at “disco funerals.”

Once again, Kisumu is the site of controversial findings by Carolyne Njue, Helene Voeten and Pieter Remes published by the journal AIDS. The study looks at “disco funerals,” which bring together community members at the home of the deceased for several days, for a celebration accompanied by music and dancing ala New Orleans.

Why were the researchers provoked to explore HIV and STI transmission among youth at these spaces?  The results are shocking.

The researchers found that many adolescents reported having casual sex at disco funerals, sometimes with multiple partners and mostly without condoms.  The researchers also reported several instances of sexual coercion and several accounts of gang rape.

In Kisumu, a town with a generalized AIDS epidemic, the high AIDS mortality leads to frequent disco funerals. This has created a vicious cycle leading to more adolescents having unprotected, transactional, or coerced sex, which contributes to HIV transmission among youth, especially among adolescent girls: In Kisumu, HIV prevalence for males is 19.8%, and 30.1% for females. Among young people ages 15-19, HIV prevalence is much higher among young women (23%) compared to young men (3.5%).

Sexual and reproductive health and HIV prevention interventions, including comprehensive sexuality education, are urgently needed to reach youth who attend disco funerals, as recommended by the authors. In addition, parents and funeral organizers need to be informed in order to end this practice that violates girls’ sexual and reproductive rights and puts them at risk of HIV infection, and other sexually transmitted infections. Adolescent girls have a right to a just and healthy life, and disco funerals do not fit into that equation.

Lyn Messner is the Program Officer for Africa at the International Women’s Health Coalition. Read her bio here.

Nigerian AIDS patients marry each other
Chilean woman living with HIV sterilized without consent
Proponents of female genital cutting in Kenya promoting it as HIV prevention method
HIV carriers face microchip implants in Indonesia’s Papua province

So I propose that we clarify the inhuman qualities of people living with HIV in international documents, so we can save ourselves the trouble of passing national policies and creating national programs that prevent them from claiming human rights. As a back-up plan, we could just fall back on Jonathan’s Swift’s proposal. Don’t worry, I’ve googled around, and the HIV virus does indeed die when heated to at least 140 F, so just to be sure to cook them.

Just in case anyone is unfamiliar with satirical blog posts, please read the With Women Worldwide Compact to find out how the International Women’s Health Coalition actually proposes we change policies to prevent increasing HIV infections in women and young people and ensure their equitable access to treatment, care, and support.

Photo courtesy of ExcuseMy Sarcasm, via the creative commons Flickr stream.

Susanna Smith is the Program Officer for Communications at the International Women’s Health Coalition. Read her bio here.