JOHANNESBURG, Feb 26 (AFP) - The first African conference on sexual health and rights opened in Johannesburg Thursday with a strident call to "break the silence" on a slew of problems including the alarming HIV/AIDS rate, sexual abuse, gender inequality and gay rights.
The conference recognised Africa's abysmal record on sexual matters and said one of the main aims of the three-day meeting, attended by delegates from Africa, Europe, Asia and America, was to put pressure on recalcitrant governments to take action.
Marc Ganem, a Frenchman who heads the World Association for Sexology (WAS) -- one of the main forces behind the summit -- told AFP: "We have to denounce everything that is wrong about sexual health and rights in Africa.
"When we win this first battle, we will have a continent where people will know how to make love, not war."
Ganem and other prominent delegates were scathing about African governments which had failed to deal with the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the traditional practice of female genital mutilation, paedophilia and protecting the rights of gays and lesbians.
"Fifty percent of the money given to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa is lost in corruption or is given to fake NGOs (non-governmental organisations) who do nothing," Ganem said, saying that governments needed to be "accountable."
South of the Sahara, around 26.6 million people were infected with HIV at the end of 2003, out of an estimated global tally of 40 million, according to the latest UN estimates.
Around 2.3 million Africans died from AIDS during 2003, and at least three million more Africans became infected.
According to the UN World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 100 million women in Africa are victims of female genital mutilation.
Andrew Oberholzer, the manager of the sex congress, said the main themes of the conference also included positive aspects of sex and sexuality including treatment and tackling male and female sexual dysfunction.
Oberholzer, the managing director of the Southern African Sexual Health Association, said the other focal point was highlighting child and adolescent sexuality.
"This is very important as the future of Africa is dependent on whether we can change behaviour at a young age."
The conference is not being attended by representatives of any governments but delegates include representatives of the African Union (AU), which according to organisers has promised to push the recommendations of the congress among member states, as well as an official from NEPAD, an African plan for economic development.
Grace Kalimugogo, director for social affairs at the AU, said there was an urgent need for African countries to commit to reforms to improve the situation.
Recalling a pan-African AIDS conference in Nigeria in 2001 where participating countries pledged to commit 10 percent of their budget to health but did not specify a deadline, Kalimugogo admitted that for the moment, the AU could only lend "moral support" to the conference but could not force them into action.
The conference heard that girls married by 15 account for 16 percent of the marriages in Africa and that the traditional belief that sex with virgins was a cure for HIV/AIDS was claiming young victims and leading to an alarming rise in paedophilia.
Juan Nel, a leading gay rights activist in South Africa, said another main area in which Africa was way behind other continents was over the rights of gays, lesbians and transsexuals.
Citing Egypt, Namibia and Zimbabwe as countries with some of the worst records, Nel said the conference aimed at "enhancing tolerance and understanding" as in South Africa's post-apartheid constitution, which protects all minorities.
The organisers will hold another summit in two years to "review the progress and the implementation of the proposals that come up in Johannesburg," Oberholzer said.
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