What Works for Women and Girls

11C. Strengthening the Enabling Environment:Transforming Legal Norms to Empower Women,including Marriage, Inheritance and Property Rights 1In many of the countries where women are most at risk for acquiring HIV, laws to protectwomen are weak (Mukasa and Gathumbi, 2008; Ezer et al., 2006; Ezer et al., 2007). Lawswhich reinforce the subordinate status of women by denying women the right to divorce, theright to own property, the ability to enter into contracts, to sue and testify in court, to consentto medical treatment and to open a bank account are criticallegal rights for women. For example, in Swaziland, fathersare automatically granted custody of children (Ezer et al.,2007), which may make a woman less likely to leave anabusive situation that may place her at risk of HIV acquisition.In Tanzania, the legal age of marriage is 15 years of agefor girls, with increased risk for HIV acquisition, as bothage and marital status tend to impact condom negotiation(Ezer et al., 2006). Some countries, such as Ethiopia, havereformed their laws to make child marriage under age 18“Without legal rights, a womancan do little to prevent herhusband’s relatives from seizingproperty and land” (Swaminathanet al., 2007).illegal and established 18 years of age as the legal minimum (Ezer et al., 2006). Now the challengein Ethiopia is to enforce this new legal minimum (CHANGE, 2009). Women also needthe basic right to mobility, i.e., women are not prohibited from accessing transport to servicesor need permission of male relatives in order to do so. These legal norms directly impactwomen’s risk for HIV. For example, if a woman has no right to divorce, she must stay with aman who may put her at risk for HIV. If a woman cannot own property, she is more likely tohave to engage in transactional sex to survive. While being a woman alone denies women theirrights in certain countries, these limited rights can be restricted even further if a woman isinfected with HIV. In some countries, people living with HIV have little access to the formallegal system (Kalla and Cohen, 2007).Laws often reflect unequal gender norms that discriminate against women. Legal rightsand gender norms must be addressed together because in order to change gender norms, lawsmust be transformed to empower women with basic legal rights and in order to transformlaws in countries where women are disempowered, gender norms must be addressed. Womenneed knowledge of the legal rights that are in place and women living with HIV particularlyneed knowledge of their rights. Protecting the legal rights of people living with HIV as wellas others at high risk of HIV acquisition, such as same sex partners, sex workers and IDUs,1 As noted in Chapter 2. Methodology, the topic of legal reform related to HIV/AIDS did not receive the samesystematic review of the legal literature that health-related topics received in the public health and HIV/AIDSliterature. Stakeholders wishing to work on legal reform should consult with legal experts. Some references togroups working on legal issues are provided in this section.WHAT WORKS FOR WOMEN AND GIRLS309