Review of matrimonial laws urged in AIDS battle

The role of African men as the initiators of sex puts women at greater risk of contracting HIV/AIDS, the director of Kenya's National AIDS Control Council, Patrick Orege, has said. At a recent Commonwealth workshop in Kenya on the role of men in stopping the spread of HIV, Orege urged delegates to "open an educative dialogue with elders, in order to stamp out practices that spread HIV/AIDS". According to the Agence France-Presse (AFP) news service, Orege also called for a review of laws that enshrine "matrimonial and conjugal rights", to dispel the popular notion that "once married, a woman should not refuse to have sex with her husband." Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned earlier this year that the success of African countries in reducing HIV/AIDS rates could be short-lived if the government failed to protect women experiencing social and cultural pressure to have unprotected sex with their husbands. UNAIDS has estimated that more than 58 percent of all women in Africa are living with HIV/AIDS.