WANTED: Comprehensive Solutions for All Women
AIDS 2010 World YWCA Statement
Women’s Rights Here – Women’s Rights Now
For women of reproductive age, AIDS related illnesses are one of the leading causes of disease and death. Out of the 33.4 million people, globally, living with HIV, 15.7 million are women and in every region of the world infection incidence in women continues to increase. Throughout sub-Saharan Africa, women and girls continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, and account for 60% of the 22.4 million people living with HIV.
As numerous global political commitments near their ‘expiry’ dates, including Universal Access to HIV prevention, treatment care and support in December 2010, the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action in 2014, the Beijing Platform for Action in 2015, and the MDGs in 2015, actions taken in the coming years are critical.
The World YWCA works towards the sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) of women, especially young and HIV positive women, to be upheld, and calls on governments, international organisations and civil society to:
- Advocate for universal assess
As universal access for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support continues it is essential that governments and world leaders understand that universal access is only universal if the human rights of young women and women living with HIV are upheld.
- Invest in comprehensive prevention strategies that are grounded in sexual and reproductive health and rights and that address violence against women
When women, especially young women, are empowered to assert their human rights, whole communities gain in terms of accelerated progress: skills are upgraded, economies are revitalised, families and society are safer. When women's rights are respected as human rights, previously invisible human rights violations are brought to centre stage (1)
- Ensure that all HIV and AIDS responses promote and build on young women’s leadership
Young women are one of the most powerful driving forces to overcome HIV and AIDS. Time and again, we have seen that the health and wellbeing of young women are at the centre of building strong and thriving communities. Yet, many young women remain unprotected, vulnerable, unduly affected and at risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, simply because they are young women. 60% of the 5.4 million young people living with HIV are women. 40% of all new infections occur among 15-24 year olds, and the majority are young women. Many of the underlying factors that make young women vulnerable to HIV, such as gender inequality, poverty, harmful traditional practices, violence, including sexual violence and stigma and discrimination, have a strong impact on their SRHR (2).
- End stigma and discrimination
Stigma continues to drive the epidemic and pushes people underground. Strategies must ensure that all people feel supported to get tested for HIV, know their status and access support structures. Governments are not investing in the right interventions and have been slow to implement an engendered approach in national programmes and policy with adequate funding.
In roughly 15 years since gender inequality was acknowledged as one of the main factors driving the spread of HIV - no economic blueprint for addressing aspects of the pandemic that are particular to women and girls has been developed. The closest approximation is "gender budgeting”, which attempts to monitor and track woman-focused spending often with little success. Nearly 30 years into the HIV epidemic, HIV programmes and policies do not sufficiently address the specific realities and needs of women and girls, or fail to respect and protect their human rights. Few HIV services provide essential sexual and reproductive health care and HIV-positive women are often pressurised, or even forced, not to have children as a requirement for AIDS treatment (3)
As the world gathers for the XVIII International AIDS Conference, the World YWCA is calling for effective solutions, “Rights here, Right now” based on existing commitments (4). Women in the world are demanding approaches that affirm and protect their rights. Now is the time to overcome injustices and ensure that AIDS responses improve the lives of women and girls.
It is urgent to act now!
For more information contact:
Sophie Dilmitis,
World YWCA SRHR and HIV Coordinator
16 Ancienne Route 1218-CH Geneva Switzerland
Tel: +41 22 929 60 33 | fax: +41 22 929 60 44
Email: sophie.dilmitis@worldywca.org | web: http://www.worldywca.org/
Present in 125 countries, in 22,000 communities and with an outreach of 25 million women and girls, the World YWCA movement has over 20 years of extensive community and global interventions on HIV prevention, care and support, with YWCAs in over 70 countries implementing programmes on Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV and AIDS.
(1)The Women Effect
(2) Lead The Change: Young Women, HIV And Sexual And Reproductive Health And Rights
(3) A briefing note for action by communities
(4) Such as the Operational Plan for the UNAIDS Action Framework: addressing women, girls, gender equality and HIV
