CANADA:Bill and Melinda Gates came off the political fence yesterday and backed crucial causes of Aids campaigners, criticising the abstinence policies advocated by the US government and calling for more rights for women and help for sex workers.
Making the keynote speech of the opening session of the 16th International Aids conference in Toronto, Canada, the Microsoft billionaire and his wife spoke with passion and commitment about the social changes necessary to stop the spread of HIV/Aids.
The so-called ABC programme - abstain, be faithful and use a condom - has saved many lives, Mr Gates told more than 20,000 delegates, but for many at the highest risk of infection, ABC had its limits. "Abstinence is often not an option for poor women and girls who have no choice but to marry at an early age," he said. "Being faithful will not protect a woman whose partner is not faithful and using condoms is not a decision that a woman can make by herself; it depends on a man.
"We need to put the power to prevent HIV in the hands of women. This is true whether the woman is a faithful married mother of small children or a sex worker trying to scrape out a living in a slum. No matter where she lives or what she does, a woman should never need her partner's permission to save her own life."
The Gates Foundation is funding research into microbicides - gels or barrier creams that a woman can use before sex and that could destroy the virus.
Mrs Gates called for an end to the stigma which affects those with HIV. "Stigma makes it easier for political leaders to stand in the way of saving lives," she said, in an attack on some African leaders influenced by the pro-abstinence agenda of the Bush government and the Christian fundamentalist right in the US.
The promotion of abstinence is a key policy of George Bush's $15 billion (€12 billion) five-year President's Emergency Plan for Aids Relief. By law, 33 per cent of funding must be spent on policies that promote abstinence outside of marriage.