Children and HIV/AIDS

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is one of the greatest humanitarian and development challenges facing the global community. It is particularly acute in sub-Saharan Africa. At present about 45 million people world-wide have been infected with HIV (UNAIDS, 2001). Over 85 per cent of these people live in Africa. The HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa has impacted in many ways. One of the most long-term impacts is the creation of an estimated 13 million orphans by 2000 which will rise to 24 million by 2010 and reach 40 million by 2020 (UNAIDS, 2001). In the absence of parents the care and support of these children will fall to extended families, civil society and governments in the various African countries. The most recent estimate of the number of children in South Africa, from the 1999 October Household Survey, is 17 891 164 children under the age of 18. Census 1996 estimated that there were 16 333 349 children. Both estimates imply that about 40 per cent of the country's total population are children. In this book the United Nations definition of the child is used: children up to the age of 18. Furthermore, the broad framework of children's rights set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) - Survival, Development, Protection and Participation - is used to examine the impacts of the HIV/AIDS epidemic upon them. Therefore, in looking at the impact of HIV/AIDS on children, consideration is given to deprivation of rights in any of those categories.