Unpaid care work and women's human rights 2013, para. 64

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Paragraph text
The HIV/AIDS pandemic has severely disrupted and/or increased unpaid care work in many countries. Women are affected by the virus in greater numbers than men and also, in conjunction with girls, provide 70 to 90 per cent of HIV/AIDS care. Caring for an AIDS patient can increase the workload of a family caretaker by one third, so that scarce family financial resources, as well as women's time, are stretched even further. The Special Rapporteur has seen herself during country visits how in communities ravaged by HIV/AIDS the desperate care needs of the sick as well as orphans and other vulnerable children all too often go unmet by the State. Instead, grandmothers, aunts or older girls struggle to fill the care deficit. Moreover, the burden of caring is disproportionately borne by people living in poverty, especially in rural areas, even in those contexts where HIV is more common among urban, wealthier people.
Legal status
Non-negotiated soft law
Body
Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
Document type
Special Procedures' report
Means of adoption
N.A.
Topic(s)
  • Health
  • Poverty
Person(s) affected
  • Families
  • Girls
  • Women
Year
2013
Paragraph type
Other
Paragraph number
64