World YWCA Welcomes the Global Commission on HIV and the Law
The World YWCA welcomes the launch of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law and the opportunity to serve in its Technical Advisory Committee. The World YWCA SRHR and HIV Coordinator, Sophie Dilmitis, has been invited to participate as part of the Technical Advisory Group which is an advisory body to the Commission providing both technical and strategic advice. "We hope that the Commission will take serious account of the punitive laws and practices that negatively impact on women's rights within the AIDS response. We know that violence is not our culture. The recently adopted Operational Plan on Women, Girls, Gender Equality and HIV should be instructive of the Commission in its work. Women in communities are seeking practical measures for a life that restores and affirms their dignity ", stressed Nyaradzayi Gumbonzvanda, World YWCA General Secretary.
The Global Commission on HIV and the Law was launched in June 2010 to develop actionable, evidence-informed and human rights-based recommendations for effective HIV responses that promote and protect the human rights of people living with and most vulnerable to HIV. To this end, the Commission focuses on some of the most challenging legal and human rights issues in the context of HIV. These may include: (1) punitive laws and practices that effectively criminalise lives; (2) laws and practices that sustain violence and discrimination as lived by women; and (3) laws and practices that impede treatment access.
The World YWCA has been running programmes on HIV, SRHR and violence against women for many decades, and convened the first ever International Summit on Women's Leadership on HIV and AIDS in 2007, in which the pledge and call to action called urgent interventions in legislation, practices and behaviours. Supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Ford Foundation, ICCO, Norwegian Church AID, EED, UNDP, UNFPA, AusAID and AWDF, the World YWCA is building capacity and mobilising the leadership of women and especially young women in addressing the twin pandemic of HIV and violence against women, as well as SRHR. The movement will gather in Zurich, Switzerland in July 2011 for a review of progress to date and a planning for the future, at an International Women Summit under the theme "Women Creating a Safe World ".
