A/HRC/37/61 collection of water and fuel. As a result of disasters, these tasks become more timeconsuming. 49. During the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal, the impact on the traditional division of roles tended to intensify, making the workload of women even greater in a country where women already work up to 16 hours a day. 47 This, in turn, decreases the time available for food production and preparation, and threatens women’s health and safety, with consequences for household food security and nutritional well-being.48 50. Impacts of decreased water quality as a result of disasters are also genderdifferentiated. Women are more physically vulnerable to waterborne diseases due to their role in supplying household water and responsibility for domestic chores. Decreased water resources may also cause women’s health to suffer as a result of the increased work burden and reduced nutritional status. For instance, in Peru following the 1997/98 El Niño event, malnutrition among women was a major cause of peripartum illness. 49 51. It is also important to highlight the fact that climate change itself intensifies psychological stress associated with disasters, increasing women’s risks of situations of violence, sexual harassment and trafficking. Because women are forced into prostitution, an increased HIV prevalence exists in drought-ridden areas of rural Africa.50 52. Women in refugee camps or in situations where they are internally displaced experience particular difficulties. Women cannot easily flee disasters or dangerous areas when they are pregnant, responsible for children and elderly people or restrained by social mores that inhibit their presence in public spaces or demand restrictive dress. If they do escape the immediate disaster area, women are vulnerable to abuse in camps for refugees or internally displaced persons, including increased risk of sexual and gender-based violence, unequal access to training and economic opportunities, and little or poor reproductive health care. Pre-existing patterns of discrimination against women in these areas are intensified, contributing to violations of women’s rights to housing, land and property. 51 3. People living with HIV/AIDS 53. People living with HIV/AIDS in disaster and post-disaster areas are especially vulnerable, because a lack of food, and especially of basic nutriments, may result in a faster progression from HIV to AIDS.52 The energy requirements of people living with HIV are higher than for healthy non-infected persons in similar physical condition and of the same age and sex.53 54. Sub-Saharan Africa has a high HIV/AIDS rate and suffers from frequent natural disasters. Moreover, rates in HIV-endemic rural areas have increased “by 11 per cent for every recent drought”.54 55. As UNAIDS mentioned in a recent factsheet focusing on the Eastern and Southern African regions, “risk and vulnerability are often heightened by income shocks and food insecurity — particularly among women and girls — due to a range of factors such as migration in search of work, early marriage of girls and young women to older men to 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 10 See http://norlha.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Impact_of_natural_disaster_on_ girls_and_women_Norlha_June_2015.pdf. World Bank, FAO, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook (Washington, 2009), pp. 455–456. See A/70/287. Marshall Burke, Erick Gong and Kelly Jones, “Income shocks and HIV in Africa”, The Economic Journal, vol. 125, issue 585 (2015), pp. 1157–1189. See A/HRC/23/44, paras. 21–22. Fiona Samuels, Paul Harvey and Thobias Bergmann, “HIV and AIDS in emergency situations: synthesis report”, Overseas Development Institute (2008). United States Agency for International Development (USAID), “Nutrition and HIV/AIDS: evidence, gaps, and priority actions” (2004). UNAIDS, “Building resilience to drought and disease: how UNAIDS is supporting Eastern and Southern Africa in the face of El Niño” (2016).