A/HRC/4/110 page 9 II. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 20. In its contribution, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) drew attention to its work aimed at securing the rights of women, children and vulnerable groups in the context of HIV and AIDS. FAO recognizes that food security and poverty alleviation cannot be achieved without the full and equal participation of women and men and recognition of their basic needs and rights. Access to adequate food is the most basic of human rights. Food security means access to adequate quantities of safe, acceptable and nutritious food for all people at all times. Poverty, food insecurity and livelihood vulnerability fuel the HIV epidemic, and may further exacerbate inequalities in ownership rights and access to agricultural inputs and natural resources. HIV/AIDS is both a determining factor of food security as well as a consequence of food and nutrition insecurity. Migration and the adoption of risky livelihood strategies in times of food insecurity increases vulnerability, with women and children particularly exposed. 21. As around half of the adults living with HIV and AIDS worldwide are women, and because women and girls are disproportionately affected by the epidemic, FAO includes a gender perspective in all its work in this area. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is currently the most effective mechanism available to parties, due to its commitment to remove obstacles to women’s basic human rights, as well as working towards equal access to, ownership of, and control over productive resources and services. In particular, article 14 of the Convention addresses the problems faced by rural women and seeks to ensure that appropriate measures are in place to eliminate discrimination against women and to ensure gender equality in rural areas. The FAO has been actively seeking to promote gender equality and reduce discrimination against women by developing guidelines and practical tools for applying socio-economic and gender analysis, in collaboration with other actors such as other United Nations agencies and civil society organizations. 22. Children are particularly vulnerable to the impact of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. When parents fall sick and die as a result of HIV/AIDS, their children are often marginalized and vital agricultural knowledge and life skills are lost, leaving them vulnerable to hunger, malnutrition and illness. In response to this crisis, FAO provides support to orphans and vulnerable children in sub-Saharan Africa, to improve their agricultural and life skills for livelihood support and food security. The FAO also seeks to instil a sense of gender equality and self-esteem in the children by facilitating learning about HIV and AIDS, while they also acquire new skills for farming, income-generation and nutrition. 23. The Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) based its contribution on the findings of more than 100 country and regional consultations that were convened in late 2005 and early 2006, with the support of UNAIDS, to identify barriers to moving towards universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support. These country and regional consultations consistently reported that legal, social and cultural barriers are undermining access to interventions for those most at risk of HIV infection and most affected by AIDS. Violence against women, drug users, sex workers and men who have sex with men remains widespread. The consultations expressed significant concern that HIV-related human rights are not high enough among the priorities of national Governments, donors or human rights organizations.