United Nations, New York and Nairobi -- At the first international
conference on women and HIV and AIDS, the United Nations Development Fund
for Women, UNIFEM, will stress the importance of new approaches to tackle
the link between violence against women and the spread of HIV and AIDS.
"Today, we have a much better knowledge of how these two pandemics are
intertwined in a vicious cycle," said UNIFEM Executive Director Noeleen
Heyzer ahead of the conference that is to be held from 4 to 7 July in
Nairobi, Kenya. "What we need now is to learn more about how to break out
of this cycle. We need new strategies and practical solutions that will
address stigma and discrimination and put an end to both violence against
women and HIV and AIDS," Heyzer added.
Almost 50 percent of people living with HIV and AIDS are women; available
data on violence against women suggests that one in three women will
suffer abuse in her lifetime. Seemingly unrelated, these figures are in
fact closely interlinked. Violence against women is both a cause and a
consequence of HIV and AIDS: a cause because rape and sexual assault pose
major risk factors for HIV transmission; a consequence because
HIV-positive women often suffer abuse when disclosing their status. In
either case, intimate partners are most likely to be the perpetrators.
Studies testify to this interrelation. In South Africa and Tanzania, women
who were subjected to violence turned out to be up to three times more
likely to be HIV-infected. On the other hand, in Cambodia, fear of
domestic violence appears to be one of the reasons why unexpectedly few
women have used counselling and testing services at antenatal clinics.
Such figures demonstrate that women's vulnerability to HIV and AIDS is
attributed to social roots, not just biological ones. Their subordinate
position in many societies can make it impossible for them to protect
themselves from HIV.
In recent years, UNIFEM has specifically addressed the nexus between HIV
and AIDS and violence against women through the UN Trust Fund to End
Violence against Women. This UNIFEM-managed Trust Fund provides grants to
local organizations and governments to pursue innovative strategies geared
towards raising awareness, uphold laws, provide medical assistance, train
service providers, and reduce stigma and discrimination that come with HIV
and AIDS. "Trust Fund grantees have demonstrated ways to tackle the twin
pandemics of violence against women and HIV and AIDS," said Noeleen
Heyzer. "Now we need to ensure that these successful approaches get scaled
up and become part of National Plans to End Violence against Women and
National AIDS Strategies that create lasting change." Trust Fund grantees
will share their expertise in Nairobi at a UNIFEM event that will assess
evaluation practices with a view to enhance the response to the
intersection of violence against women and HIV and AIDS.
The International Women's Summit: Women's Leadership making a Difference
on HIV and AIDS is organized by the World YWCA in collaboration with the
International Community of Women Living with HIV/AIDS (ICW), a
longstanding UNIFEM partner. It is expected to bring together some 1,500
participants.
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UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. It provides financial
and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster
women's empowerment and gender equality. Placing the advancement of
women's human rights at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses
its activities on reducing feminized poverty; ending violence against
women; reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and
achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as
well as war. For more information, visit www.unifem.org.
UNIFEM, 304 East, 45th Street, 15th Floor, New York, NY 10017.
Tel: +1 212-906-6400. Fax: +1 212-906-6705.
