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Abstract
The Co-Epidemics: HIV/Violence against women and girls
S Fisher1, R Gupta2, P Shifman3, R Jewkes4, S Thurman5, C Smith6
1INTERSECT-Worldwide, New York, United States; 2Apne Ap Women Worldwide, Kolkata, India; 3UNICEF, New York, United States; 4WHP, Johannesburg, South Africa; 5International AIDS Trust, Washington DC, United States; 6RAGS, Johannesburg, South Africa
Issues: Both HIV and Violence Against Women and Girls are raging out of control globally and it has been observed that there is a profound link between the two. Women, girls, and even female infants face unimaginable risk for HIV through violent means. It has also been observed that the full weight of the Womens Movement brought to bear on the epidemic could shift the social environment in which both HIV and violence thrive. This shift will allow women and girls walk their streets in safety and HIV be diminished as a threat to global sustainability and well-being.
Description: This paper will demonstrate statistically, but primarily through the work being done in the areas of Gender based Violence, Rape, Domestic Violence, Sex Trafficking, and the Global Culture of Violence how each has become a dangerous vector of HIV transmission and how the Womens Movement uses and can use this connection in order to raise awareness for prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS. The paper looks at the power of this overlap in specific communities and countries as well as internationally.
Lessons Learned: The utilization of the relationship between Violence Against Women and Girls and HIV/AIDS as Co-Epidemics has been effectively used to raise awareness around culture, violence and HIV/AIDS transmission and the elimination of stigma as well as to innovate approaches to education, law, and public policy. The Womens Movement is able to marshal a formidable challenge to effect significant change in the social fabric that has allowed both HIV and Violence to thrive.
Recommendations: This paper recommends that in communities and cultures where Violence Against Women and Girls has become a vector of HIV that the Womens Movement, through individuals and womens organizations take up the task of facing down public policy, cultural acceptance and silence so that the link between HIV and Violence Against Women and Girls can be broken.
The XV International AIDS Conference
Abstract no.
D11049
Suggested Citation
" S Fisher , , et al.
The Co-Epidemics: HIV/Violence against women and girls.
CD Only:
The XV International AIDS Conference:
Abstract no.
D11049"
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