UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, UNAIDS Executive Director Peter Piot and other officials joined more than 2000 people in a gather in New York City's Cathedral of St.John the Divine to commemorate World AIDS Day on Wednesday evening.

The event, sponsored by several UN agencies in cooperation with local African American community, is aimed at honoring progress made in the battle against AIDS and bringing into focus the remaining challenges.

Addressing the gathering, Annan said women are the most courageous and creative champions in the fight against HIV/AIDS, yet the courage they have shown in this fight is matched only by the toll the disease is taking on them.

Women now account for about half of all people living with HIV worldwide, and in sub-Saharan Africa, almost 57 percent of adults living with HIV are women, he noted.

Women already bear a brunt of poverty and AIDS makes the poverty trap even easier for them to fall into, and even harder to break, he added.

Annan called for legal and social reforms that will change the relationship between women and men, promote greater awareness and responsibility among men and bring women's role into full play in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

In his speech, Peter Piot said the World AIDS Day 2004 commemoration is a call for action against gender inequality that increases the impact of AIDS around the world. "Concrete action is necessary to prevent violence against women, and ensure access to property and inheritance rights, basic education and employment opportunities for women and girl," he added.

Juanita Williams, an African American woman living with HIV from South Carolina, shared her story of fighting the disease while devoting herself to the continuing efforts of enhancing public awareness of and enlisting popular support for the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Well-known poet and activist Jessica Care More read her poem "The Invisible Women" and other artists presented songs and performances featuring the theme of the 17th World AIDS Day " Women, Girls HIV and AIDS."

Studies show that women and girl can be three times more likely to become infected by HIV than their male counterparts. Since 2002,the number of women living with HIV has increased in every region, with the sharpest increases in Eastern Europe, Asia and Latin America.

Source: Xinhua