The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, will represent the State at a UN General Assembly special session on women this week. The session is a follow-up to the fourth international conference on women and will discuss HIV and AIDS.
Yesterday, Mr Peter Piot, executive director of the joint UN programme for HIV/ AIDS, said biological and social factors made women and girls more vulnerable to HIV than men. Violence, or the threat of violence, increased their vulnerability to HIV and reduced their ability to protect against infection, he said.
"Women's economic dependence on men makes them less able to protect themselves, while social norms limit their access to information about sexual matters," said Mr Piot.