Study Report - Women Victims of Crimes in Kerala - Kerala Police

Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) with gender inequality in law and social customs
in the Pacific Island countries and territories is found. One of the key issues identified in
the research was the intersection between gender based violence and spread of
HIV&AIDS showing that violence against women is both a cause of HIV transmission
and effect of testing HIV positive. The report outlines that violence against women and
HIV interact in several ways: i) Forced sex poses a direct biological risk for HIV and
other sexually transmitted diseases; ii) Intimate partner violence poses indirect risks for
HIV and other STIs, violence, and threats of violence limit one’s ability to refuse sex or
negotiate safer sexual behaviour, sexual abuse as a child, coerced sexual initiation and
current partner violence may increase propensity for sexual risk taking later in life,
women (and men) who experience violence may be in partnership with someone who has
risky sexual behaviours and may, consequently, show a higher likelihood of being
infected; iii) Violence or fear of violence may deter women from disclosing their HIV
status or seeking HIV testing altogether and delay their access to treatment and other
services.
The study also includes recommendations to “address the prevention of violence
against women, children (both girls and boys) and sexual minorities as an integral part of
preventing the spread of HIV” with suggested specific recommendations including:
compliance with international standards on the rights of women and girls; legislative
reforms accompanied by actions to educate the police and judiciary; budgetary
allocations to support programmes to prevent violence against women; intervention to
prevent violence against women to be grounded in rights-based and gender
transformative approach; research on the interrelations between social constructions of
masculinity, intimate partner violence, power differentials within relationships and HIV
risk behaviours in men; better documenting and understanding of the causes of violence
against women in Pacific Island Countries Islands; strengthen national statistics offices to
incorporate HIV surveillance and violence against women; strengthen women’s
leadership and economic and political participation at all levels; strengthen police
response to violence against women; strengthen the response of the formal justice system
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