This week to commemorate the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, Safe magazine featured UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé as one of 50 global heroes who is stopping sexual violence against children. The magazine cites Mr Sidibé leadership in raising awareness about the intersection of HIV and sexual violence.

Safe magazine is supported by Together for Girls—a public-private partnership focused on ending violence against children, particularly sexual violence against girls—and is the first digital magazine designed to help stop sexual violence around the world. The magazine shares stories of survivors of childhood sexual abuse and offers tips on how readers can protect themselves and their children. It also highlights how individuals, NGOs, national governments and communities are working to stop violence.

“In the last year and a half, we’ve seen an uproar against sexual violence like never before,” says Together for Girls Director Michele Moloney-Kitts. “From Delhi to Steubenville, it’s been incredibly encouraging to see unprecedented responses to cases of sexual abuse.”

The premiere issue with Olympic Gold medalist Kayla Harrison on the cover features 50 heroes—from government leaders to media moguls, scientific researchers to queens, survivors to rappers—who have also helped halt sexual violence against children. The list includes survivor and advocate Somaly Mam; former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton; author and activist Eve Ensler; actress Jane Fonda; and UNICEF Deputy Executive Director of Programmes Geeta Rao Gupta.

The particular impact that HIV has on women and girls was discussed during a panel discussion organised in conjunction with the 55th Session of Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Broad ranging discussion took place during the event on how gender inequality, poverty, harmful cultural practices, and unequal power relations exacerbates their vulnerability to HIV infection.

Also underscored was the important, if not central, role of human rights and creating an enabling environment for women and girls. Participants agreed that countries must do more to ensure women and girls have access to comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and HIV services.

The keynote speech was given by Jan Beagle, Deputy Executive Director, Management and Governance, UNAIDS who said the Committee could help to ensure that governments make HIV services available and accessible to all women and girls including sex workers, women who inject drugs and transwomen. Looking to the post-2015 agenda, she stressed the importance of leveraging synergies across movements to advance sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

The panellists agreed that all barriers hampering women’s access to sexual and reproductive health services must be removed, and they called on State Parties to CEDAW to make the necessary investments to facilitate access to SRH services. They also encouraged State Parties to enhance their reporting on human rights issues as it relates to women and HIV and to better use CEDAW to advance the rights of women and women living with HIV in particular.

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A high-level task force for ICPD presenting the paper Policy Recommendations for ICPD Beyond 2014: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All. 25 April 2013, New York. Credit: Elsa M. Ruiz

In 1994 at the International Conference on Population Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179 countries adopted a landmark 20-year Programme of Action, placing gender equality and women’s empowerment and reproductive rights at the center of population and sustainable development.

Last week, in a review of progress which took place in New York, a high-level task force strongly urged governments and the international community to take much bolder action in order to meet the commitments.

In a paper Policy Recommendations for ICPD Beyond 2014: Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights for All,  the task force outline specific steps to ensure that the commitments made become central components not only of next year’s conference, but also the post-2015 and sustainable development goals agenda. The task force is also calling for increased accountability mechanisms to ensure concerted action by governments to achieve these goals.

Co-chaired by former Presidents Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique and Tarja Halonen of Finland, the task force is comprised of 26 eminent government, civil society, and private sector leaders. Its mission is to galvanize political will and advance a forward-looking agenda for the ICPD Programme of Action that fulfills sexual and reproductive health and rights of all people.

“While we are encouraged by the achievements of ICPD implementation, the challenge is that too many people around the world are still denied their sexual and reproductive health and rights,” said Former President Halonen. “These are fundamental freedoms and human rights that lie at the very core of human dignity.”

The global panel of experts highlighted four main recommendations for government action:

• Respecting, protecting and fulfilling sexual and reproductive rights for all through public education and legal and policy reforms
• Achieving universal access to quality, comprehensive and integrated sexual and reproductive health information, education and services
• Ensuring universal access to comprehensive sexuality education for all young people
• Eliminating violence against women and girls and securing universal access to critical services for all victims/survivors of gender-based violence

Within those four areas are recommendations for specific actions on a range of issues including; ending unsafe abortion, ending acts of violence against women and girls; and ensuring equality under the law regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity, HIV or other status.

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Management and Governance, Jan Beagle participating at the launch of the policy recommendations. Credit: Elsa M. Ruiz

All four key recommendations are highly relevant for UNAIDS and the global AIDS response. The HIV epidemic continues to disproportionately affect young women and girls, with infection rates twice as high as young men. Every minute a young woman is newly infected with HIV. Globally, AIDS is the leading cause of death in women of reproductive age.

UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Management and Governance, Jan Beagle, stressed that sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls, gender equality and the elimination of violence against women are central to the work of UNAIDS in achieving the targets of the 2011 United Nations General Assembly Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS.

“To achieve our objective of inclusive development rooted in equality and social justice, we need to leverage synergies across movements, bringing together the capacity and innovation of the AIDS response with movements to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights, gender equality and the empowerment of women and young people,” said Ms Beagle.

The panelists at the launch were: Luis Ubiñas, President of the Ford Foundation; H.E. Tarja Halonen Former President of Finland, and Co-Chair of the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD; H.E. Joaquim Chissano Former President of Mozambique, and Co-Chair of the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD; Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, Executive Director, United Nations Population Fund; Ishita Chaudhry, CEO & Founder of The YP Foundation, and Member of the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD; Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary of Denmark, and Member of the High-Level Task Force for the ICPD; H.E. Joy Phumaphi, Former Minister of Health of Botswana & Member of the Global Leaders Council for Reproductive Health.

More than 400 women dedicated to guarantee the respect of the fundamental rights of women, their access to school and education, gender equality or the representation of women in politics gathered in Paris on 20 March for the first global forum of francophone women.

The forum was an opportunity to share experiences and find ways to promote the rights of women and to ensure gender equality in the francophone countries. Participants developed an action plan which will be submitted to the President of the Republic of France and Secretary General of the Francophonie.

During the meeting, UNAIDS presented a new report entitled 5 actions for women and HIV in La Francophonie, which outlines 5 actions to meet the challenges that women and girls face and support them as partners in the response to AIDS. 

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Co-chaires Hon Thokozani Khupe, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe (left) and Hon Julia Duncan-Cassell, Minister of Gender and Development of Liberia at the High Level Consultation Accelerating Zero-Tolerance to Gender based violence through the HIV response. New York City on March 9, 2013. Credit: UNAIDS/M. Taamallah

How much progress has the global AIDS response made in ensuring that women and girls live their lives free from violence? What are the next steps needed to strengthen the challenge to gender-based violence and its links to HIV? These critical questions dominated a high level consultation which took place in New York on 9 March during the 57^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). 

Convened by UNAIDS and UN Women, and cosponsored by the Government of Ireland, the UN Development Programme and the UN Population Fund the consultation brought together key civil society activists, United Nations organizations and government representatives.

Co-chaired by Hon Thokozani Khupe, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe and Hon Julia Duncan-Cassell, Minister of Gender and Development of Liberia, the consultation took the priority theme of the CSW: elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls as a springboard to find ways to accelerate the attainment of Millennium Development Goals 3 (promoting gender equality) and 6 (halting HIV). Participants also discussed how to position HIV and gender-based violence on the post-2015 development agenda.

“The post-2015 agenda must be seen as finishing the last mile,” said Thokozani Khupe, Deputy Prime Minister of Zimbabwe. “We must see the things that are unfinished and try to tackle them differently,” she added.

Gender based violence is a global epidemic, and it is the most brutal manifestation of gender inequality. According to UNAIDS, at least one in three women is beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in the course of her lifetime. In some countries, up to 45% of girls under the age of 15 report their first sexual experience as forced.

“Violence is not inevitable,” said Charlotte Watts from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. “Even if figures are shocking, we should be inspired by them to work and address them.”

Tackling violence against women and girls is key if their vulnerability to the HIV is to be reduced. Women can be forced to have unwanted and unprotected sex and they can face violence if they reveal that they are living with HIV.  Research in South Africa has shown that young women subjected to intimate partner violence are 12% more likely to become infected with HIV.  Married women in India who experience both physical and sexual violence from their partners are three times more likely to be living with HIV than women not subjected to attacks at all. Cases of coerced sterilizations and abortions undertaken on women living with HIV without their informed consent are widespread and documented in many countries.

Representatives of civil society shared community perspectives of how HIV and gender-based violence are intimately linked. Jennifer Gatsi, from the Namibia Women’s Health Coalition, stressed the negative consequences suffered by women living with HIV.

Group photo of the participants at the High Level Consultation Accelerating Zero-Tolerance to Gender based violence through the HIV response. New York City on March 9, 2013.
Credit: UNAIDS/M. Taamallah

“The birth of a child is commonly the happiest day in a woman’s life,” said Ms Gatsi. “But in certain countries, the day a child is born from a mother with HIV, is the day when she dies or she starts to face discrimination.”

The consultation discussed the fact that, despite the extent and consequences of gender- based violence and its role in fuelling the HIV epidemic, it too often goes unaddressed and unpunished. It was noted that nothing less than working for social transformation of gender relations, including economic and legal empowerment of women, can bring about the changes needed to help them to stay safe.

According to the UNAIDS Director, Rights, Gender and Community Mobilization, Mariangela Simao, making real strides against gender-based violence is a core goal for effective HIV responses, as reflected in the UNAIDS Strategy 2011-1015.

Lynn Collins, a UNFPA HIV advisor who moderated a panel at the event said, "We at UNFPA have welcomed this opportunity to bring together a range of voices, united in the call to end violence in all its heinous forms through education and other means of empowerment, legal reform and redress, and rights-based sexual and reproductive health and HIV services."

The Commission on the Status of Women, which meets annually, is one of the main global policy-making bodies committed to gender equality and the advancement of women. This year’s meeting is taking place from March 4-15.

Image of one of the promotional images of the campaign featuring the Carnival queens.
Credit: UNAIDS

Last week was Carnival in Panama.  As part of the celebrations during 11-12 February, the Queens of “Calle Arriba” and “Calle Abajo” —representing opposite neighbourhoods— competed against each other in a variety of contests. However when it comes to HIV, the two rivals joined forces to prevent new HIV infections among women.

UNAIDS, in partnership with the Panamanian Carnival Boards of “Calle Arriba” and “Calle Abajo”—the national institutions in charge of planning and coordinating activities related to this festivity— the National AIDS Programme, and PROBIDSIDA, launched a national campaign entitled “I decide, I take care of myself” (Yo decido, yo me cuido).

The campaign, which will run until the end of February, aims to help reduce gender inequalities, empower women and promote sexual and reproductive rights. One of the major goals is to ensure women can make informed decisions in relation to their sexual health, especially when it comes to preventing HIV.

“If we want that no more women get infected with HIV in Panama we need to join efforts at all levels, including institutions, civil society organizations and international agencies. This is why we decided to endorse this initiative,” said Pilar De Amores, Legal Representative of “Calle Arriba” Carnival Board.

In the last decade the number of new HIV infections has been on the rise among young women in Panama. A national survey on sexual and reproductive health held in 2009 and 2010 found that only 9% of women use condoms as a preventive measure during sex. Gender inequality is a major driving force behind the lack of reproductive and sexual rights of women in the country.

“Gender inequalities affect women´s power to insist on and negotiate safe sex practices like condom use, and thus protect themselves from HIV” explains Ricardo Garcia, UNAIDS Country Coordinator for Panama and Costa Rica. “We have created this campaign to increase the recognition of women as having sexual rights and capable of exercising them, in line with the UNAIDS action framework on women, girls, gender equity and HIV”.

The campaign includes television spots that are being broadcast on national networks as well as posters in schools, organizations and on the streets featuring the Carnival queens calling on Panamanian young women to take the lead and protect themselves from HIV.  As part of the campaign, the Queens received special training on issues related to HIV prevention and gender inequalities, in order to participate in public events and media programmes promoting the campaign.

“Women need access to HIV information, education, and services to have control over our bodies and be able to negotiate the use of condoms with our partners,” said Maruquel Madeleine González Velásquez, Queen of “Calle Arriba”. “I feel extremely accomplished to be part of this project,” she added.

Poverty and gender inequality, in addition to the lack of access to education, increase vulnerability to HIV infection. This is one of the main messages of the Gender Equality, HIV and Education booklet recently produced by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The new publication stresses that tackling these issues is crucial to meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and other international commitments regarding education, human rights, equality and social justice. As part of a UNESCO series on good policy and practice in HIV and health education, the booklet includes discussion papers that explore the links between gender, HIV and education.

Findings reveal that efforts to improve education, gender and HIV-related issues to date have largely been implemented in parallel. There is increasing recognition, however, that these issues cannot be tackled in isolation. According to the booklet, there is a need to find ways to ensure that policies and programmes on gender equality, HIV and education are mutually reinforcing in order to maximize their impact.

By addressing topics of gender equality, poverty, the role of education, engagement between education and the wider community and young people’s leadership, the booklet aims to highlight experiences, innovative approaches and lessons learned, all in order to inform future policy and programming.

Barriers to education for girls

Gender inequalities are deeply entrenched in attitudes and behaviours, and the view that “the girl child is only for marriage” was found to be common among fathers interviewed during baseline research. The booklet quotes a view reinforced by a 13-year-old girl who commented that, “Being in school is a privilege according to our fathers, but not a right.”

Disparities against girls tend to be more extreme and persistent than those against boys. For example, more than 60% of adolescent girls are out of school in countries such as Central African Republic, Djibouti, Eritrea, Guinea, Pakistan and Tanzania, while in Senegal and Niger, the rate exceeds 70%.

Achieving an impact on gender equality and HIV will be possible if urgent action is taken to reduce existing inequalities in wealth and education, the booklet notes. Education has a key role to play in breaking some of the patterns that have been passed down through generations. Programmes that address the immediate barriers to school access, the most pervasive of which is poverty, can have an immediate and beneficial effect on access to education. This, the booklet concludes, will have positive benefits on promoting positive sexual health and preventing HIV infection for all young people.