Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS

UNAIDS plays an important global advocacy role in supporting and addressing the linkages of gender-based violence in the context of sex work by the ongoing support and collaboration with networks of sexworkers. 

In Kyrgyzstan UNAIDS provided support to the women network of people living with HIV.

In the Dominican Republic UNAIDS provided support to USAID Linkages Project through consultation meetings with organisations of sexual diversity working on gender-based violence, as well as support for the implementation of the COIN Campaign to protect children and adolescents from commercial sexual exploitation and HIV and AIDS.

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UNAIDS supported nine civil society consultations,6 led by the Women Won’t Wait campaign, focusing on HIV and partner violence, and advocating for increased investment in HIV, gender equality and women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights through the Post-2015 development framework. To highlight the gross human rights violation of violence against women, UNAIDS collaborated with the Permanent Mission of Namibia and Victims2Survivors, to launch the Namibian ‘Unite to end Gender-based Violence’ exhibition on 10 December 2013, in Geneva. Hide

The interagency initiative Together for Girls and UNAIDS co-hosted an event to commemorate World AIDS Day and the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, focusing on the progress made toward addressing gender-based violence and the interface with HIV and on the leadership within the HIV and gender communities to raise awareness and increase access to prevention and care services. UNAIDS also supported Lesotho to use the Campaign on 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence to raise public awareness. UNAIDS supported Sri Lanka to integrate awreness-raising of HIV into its national advocacy and communication under the UNiTE campaign to end violence.The inter-agency intiitative Together for Girls brought greater visibility to empowering women and girls in the context of HIV at the International AIDS Society AIDS 2012 meeting in Washington DC, where the partnership was able to make the connection between child abuse, gender inequality and HIV. Hide

At the country level, UNAIDS has provided catalytic funding through its Joint UN Teams to twenty-three (23) countries for actions to reduce gender‐based violence through HIV responses, in particular highlighting the critical contribution of violence to HIV transmission, as well as its consequences in terms of non-utilization of services. UNAIDS also supported advocacy and capacity development on addressing violence against women in eight countries, through the civil society coalition Women Won’t Wait and resulting advocacy messages used for the High-Level Meeting on AIDS. Hide

Awareness on gender-based violence and livelihoods was raised through a documentary produced by UNAIDS “Empowered over their fields, empowered over their lives, food security response to HIV and gender inequities” (http://vimeo.com/14921424 or http://www.fao.org/emergencies/current-focus/hiv-aids-and-emergencies/en/), a brochure http://www.fao.org/docrep/012/al315e/al315e00.pdf and several articles in FAO Dimitra newsletter and IRIN Media Centre (Kenya: growing self-esteem at farm schools (IRIN)) http://www.plusnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89179). Hide

UNAIDS is an active member of the Secretary General’s Africa-wide Campaign to End Violence Against Women. Hide

A meeting "Stopping the HIV epidemic – young women, girls and HIV in southern Africa. What must be done!" was convened in June 2008 by UNAIDS with the University of Witwatersrand Reproductive Health Research Unit. Three research papers relevant to violence against women were presented: intergenerational sex; sexual violence; and risk perception, knowledge and behaviour. The findings of the meeting were presented at ICASA in December 2008 along with communication material put together by Soul City to engage communities and decision makers. They were published in a special supplement of AIDS that was distributed at ICASA. Hide

UNAIDS participated in several workshops and fora at the International AIDS Society Meeting in Mexico which presented new information on violence against women. Hide

In August 2007, UNAIDS convened a technical consultation on social change communication aimed, among other things, at examining the role of social change communication in HIV prevention, with a specific focus on tackling the drivers of the epidemic. Hide

On the occasion of International Women’s Day 2007, the United Nations system celebrated with a panel presentation and discussion, exhibition, and film screening on the global theme of ‘Ending impunity for violence against women’. The Executive Secretary of ESCAP and Executive Director of UNAIDS called for universal respect for women’s human rights and an end to all forms of violence against women and impunity. Copies of the Secretary-General’s study were widely distributed. Hide