WUNRN
Via World YWCA - 8/18/2011
Women's
organization partners call for the increased representation and participation
of women, specifically women living with HIV and women from the Global
South on the planning and country roll out of the "Countdown to
Zero", which is the Global Plan towards the Elimination of New HIV
Infections among Children by 2015 and Keeping their Mothers Alive.
Collective
Statement of Women's Organizations on the Global Plan for Elimination of HIV
infection in Children and Keeping Mothers Alive
As representatives
of the women and HIV community, including women living with HIV, we would like
to join in welcoming the Countdown to Zero: Global
Plan Towards the Elimination of New HIV infections among Children by 2015 and
Keeping their Mothers Alive, 2011-15. We also welcome the
engagement of the International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS
(ICW), represented by Beri Hull, on the Global Steering Group.
We see these issues as forming one critical and fundamental part of an overall
human rights framework in ensuring that the sexual and reproductive rights of
women living with HIV are upheld by all concerned, as highlighted in the High
Level Consultation hosted jointly by UNAIDS, UN Women and UNFPA in New York in
February 2011. In moving towards the country implementation of the Global Plan,
we would welcome the opportunity to work with you in order to ensure that the
Global Steering Group, country reference groups, and community based partners
are inclusive of women living with HIV, especially women who are or have been
directly affected by vertical transmission issues, and women’s rights advocates
including from the sexual and reproductive health and rights movement. We are
particularly concerned about the limited engagement of civil society in the
Global Steering Group, with only one woman openly living with HIV, no women
from the Global South, and no one from the women’s sexual and reproductive
rights movement. We would very much like to work with you to rectify this
oversight.
We see the role of
women living with HIV as especially essential in ensuring the safe conception,
gestation, birth and early development of their children, so that they may be
born and remain HIV-free. It is, therefore, crucial, that women living with HIV
are given the utmost institutional and community-wide support in order that
they may, in turn provide effective care and support as the key primary care
takers of their children – as well as in their own rights as women – in this
work.
In
this context, we trust therefore that you will ensure equal representation of women from the Global South and particularly
women living with HIV – especially those personally affected by these issues - at all levels. The
meaningful partnership and participation of women living with HIV – especially
those personally affected by these issues - and women’s rights advocates are
essential if we are to succeed in taking the Global Plan forward by improving maternal and child health, halt
the spread and impact of HIV and guarantee the basic conditions that will allow
women to exercise their fundamental human rights, including their sexual and
reproductive rights.
As noted by the
civil society participants on the Global Steering Group, civil society
participants – and particularly women living with HIV directly affected by
peri-natal issues and women’s rights advocates - could and should play crucial roles in:
developing and implementing community charters, mobilizing demand for
services, direct delivery of such services, linking community services to
those provided by governmental programs, supporting women and their
partners to access services, mobilizing leadership; and especially
holding governments and international partners accountable for
taking action on their commitments, including to deliver the Global Plan
and achieving its targets within a comprehensive framework of sexual and
reproductive health and rights for all women living with HIV.
We look forward to
your action on this matter, and look forward to working in partnership.
Sincerely,
Aids Orphans Care
and Support Programs (AOCASP) –
All-Ukrainian
network of PLWH
ANANYA Mahila Okkutta
and Global Concerns
Argentinean Network
of Women Living with HIV/AIDS
ASEPO- Uruguay
Asia
Pacific
Asian-Pacific
Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW)
Asosiación de trabajadoras sexuales del Perú
ATHENA
Network
Balance
–
Católicas por el
Derecho a Decidir -
Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)
Colectivo Juvenil
"Decide" –
Commission on Justice,
Peace and Creation, National Council of Churches -
Comunidade
Internacional de Mulheres Vivendo com HIV AIDS - ICW Brazil
Corporación Kimirina
-
Development
Connections -
El Closet de Sor Juana - México
Fundacion Arcoiris por el Respeto a la Diversidad Sexual – Mexico
Fundación Huésped - Argentina
Fundacion para Estudio de Investigacion de la Mujer
(FEIM)
Fundación Nimehuatzin – Nicaragua
Fundación REDVIHDA - Bolivia
Gestos: HIV+,
Communication and Gender –
Grassroots
Empowerment Trust –
Gender Equality
& HIV Prevention Programme, HEARD
GRUPAJUS- Brazil
Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) - México
Imagine
Inhijambia -
International AIDS
Women Caucus (IAWC)
International
Community of Women with HIV/AIDS Global (ICW Global)
International
Community of Women with HIV/AIDS Asia Pacific (ICW
International
Community of Women with HIV/AIDS West Africa (ICW
International
Services Association -
International
Treatment Preparedness Coalition (ITPC)
International
Women's Health Coalition
Instituto Vida Nova Integração Social Educação e Cidadania,
Jamaican Community
of Positive Women (JCW+)
Latin American and
Caribbean Women’s Health Network (LACWHN)
Mesa Nacional de
Derechos Sexuales y Derechos Reproductivos -
Mujer y Salud en
Uruguay (MYSU)
NACOSA -
Observatorio de
Género y Equidad -
Observatorio Latino
Positively
Pozfem
Raks Thai Foundation
Realizing Sexual and
Reproductive Justice Alliance (RESURJ)
Red Dominicana de PVVS (REDOVIH)
Rede Feminista de Saúde Direitos Sexuais e Direitos Reprodutivos - Brasil
Research Institute
Without Walls (RIWW)
RNP+ PE -
Salamander
Trust
Servicios
Humanitarios en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva, AC -
South African National
AIDS Council Women's Sector
STOP AIDS NOW!
Supecha Baotip from
BaanNum Guesthouse
Thai Positive Women’s Network
UNASSE; AC -
UNGASS AIDS Forum on SRH
WECARE+
Women living with
HIV who use Drugs -
Women Won't Wait
Campaign (WWW)
World AIDS Campaign
World YWCA