Gender based violence

Documents

Gender-responsive HIV programming for women and girls

31 December 2014

This guidance note is intended to guide countries on how to include a gender perspective and promote equality and human rights for women and girls in their national HIV responses, drawing upon the latest technical developments, guidelines and investment approaches. The inclusion of a gender perspective for women and girls into national HIV responses is important because they continue to be profoundly affected by HIV. As such, addressing their needs is a prerequisite to effectively responding to the epidemic. This brief, which seeks to support a gender-responsive HIV response, is a first step towards the application of key tools and resources that help integrate gender considerations into concept notes, proposals, and national strategic plans.

Update

Women living with HIV speak out against violence

26 November 2014

To mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November and the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence, UNAIDS published Women living with HIV speak out against violence, a collection of powerful essays written by women living with and affected by HIV.

Intimate partner violence affects one in three women globally and has been shown to increase the risk of acquiring HIV, while research shows that preventing such violence can reduce HIV incidence by 12%. In some settings, young women who have experienced intimate partner violence are 50% more likely to acquire HIV than women who have not. As reported in the publication, women living with HIV also face institutional violence, including forced sterilization and forced abortion as well as denial of health services.

Sabine Böhlke-Möller, Ambassador of Namibia to the United Nations Office in Geneva, and Luiz Loures, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, jointly launched the publication. Depicting women’s experiences of violence and proposing action to end the AIDS epidemic and violence against women, the publication also highlights the imperative of a united and multisectoral response to eliminating violence against women and ending the AIDS epidemic by 2030. 

Quotes

“When you commit violence against a woman, you commit violence against everyone.”

Luiz Loures, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS

Press Statement

Sixteen days of activism against gender-based violence

25 November 2014

Michel Sidibé
Executive Director of UNAIDS
Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations

As we unite against gender-based violence, I dedicate this message to every woman and every child who has experienced violence.

One in three women experience some form of gender-based violence in their lives—and around 120 million girls are sexually assaulted or raped before they reach the age of 20.

Violence often exists in near total impunity hidden behind a notion of cultural values.

The link between violence and HIV is irrefutable.

For women living with HIV, violence in the form of forced sterilization is a fundamental human rights violation.

I commend the decision of the Namibian Supreme Court, which upheld the earlier verdict that the rights of three women living with HIV had been violated when they were forcibly sterilized.

We can never be silent. We can never be neutral. We can never tolerate violence against women and girls.

To end the AIDS epidemic by 2030 we must eliminate all forms of violence against women.

Press centre

Download the printable version (PDF)

Documents

Women living with HIV speak out against violence

25 November 2014

Violence against women and girls is an unacceptable violation of basic human rights. It also is so widespread that ending it must be a global public health priority. An estimated one in three women is beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused by an intimate partner during her lifetime. Intimate partner violence has been shown to increase the risk of HIV infection by around 50%, and violence (and the fear of violence) deters women and girls from seeking services for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Documents

Gender matters: overcoming gender-related barriers to prevent new HIV infections among children and keep their mothers alive

14 October 2014

After more than 30 years of the HIV epidemic—and an unprecedented medical and social response—discrimination, violence, harmful gender norms and related stigma continue to pose challenges to an effective HIV response. The findings of these assessments indicate that gender-related barriers pose significant obstacles to the uptake of services that prevent new HIV infections among children and keep mothers alive—obstacles that require urgent attention. Without dedicated attempts to overcome these gender-related barriers, current efforts will meet with limited success, and the needs and rights of both women and children will remain compromised.

Documents

Women out loud: How women living with HIV will help the world end AIDS

11 December 2012

Women may make up half the world’s population, but they do not share it equally. This is especially evident when it comes to HIV. Half of all people living with HIV are women, yet many are underserved or do not know their status. Despite the many successes we have seen, women still face inequalities that will keep the AIDS response from reaching its full potential.

Documents

UNAIDS gender assessment tool: Towards a gender-transformative HIV response

05 May 2014

The Gender assessment tool for national HIV responses is intended to assist countries assess their HIV epidemic, context and response from a gender perspective, helping them to make their HIV responses gender transformative and (as such) more effective. The Tool is specifically designed to support the development or review of national strategic plans (NSP) and to inform submissions to both country investment cases and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM).

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