Women's Access to Health Campaign...

ERRADICATING VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: A CRITICAL STEP IN REDUCING THE SPREAD OF HIV/AIDS ACROSS THE WORLD - 

The Women’s Access to Health Campaign (WAHC) is an international initiative aimed at mobilizing women’s groups, health groups, youth groups as well as other social movements concerned with the deteriorating situation of women’s health to promote women’s health around the world with an emphasis on women’s sexual and reproductive rights.  

Initiated in 2003, the overall aim of the Women’s Access to Health Campaign (the “Campaign”) is to contribute to improving the health of women worldwide. To further this aim the Campaign pushes for access to primary health care for women, with a particular emphasis on reproductive and sexual health and rights. It does this, in turn, by providing a common platform for grassroots action all over the world.

The support base of the WAHC is Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR)’s over 400 Campaign supporters. These are those organisations and individuals who wish to strategize, lobby and advocate for specific issues with like-minded groups and individuals in a campaign that WGNRR organizes.

The WAHC thus includes both mobilizing existing Campaign supporters to take action on themes, as well as mobilizing individuals and organizations to become active Campaign supporters. The Campaign is currently being coordinated by the Centre for Women’s Health and Information (CEWHIN), a non governmental, not for profit making organisation based in Lagos, Nigeria.

Although the overall topic of the Campaign is “Women’s Access to Health”, the Campaign has focused on different issues over the past four years. In 2003, the theme was ‘Governments take responsibility for women’s health! Primary health care and women’s reproductive and sexual rights: Where are we today?’ while it was ‘Health Sector Reforms: Hazardous to Women’s Health’ in 2004.

The agreed theme for 2005 was ‘Violence Against Women: A global Health Emergency’. In view of the toll that AIDS epidemic is taking on women’s health across the globe especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, the current theme is ‘Breaking the Ties that Bind us: A Call for Action Against Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS.’

The campaign for the year 2006 is particularly significant in view of the devastating nature of HIV/AIDS, the many gender issues that surround it and the fact that it is now a major public health problem. Across the world, there are an estimated 17.5 million women living with HIV with a majority living in developing countries. Over thirteen million women are living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa alone, and almost two million in South and South East Asia (UNAIDS, WHO).

Prevalence rates among women have also grown significantly in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Recent reports show the Russian Federation has 440,000 women living with HIV/AIDS, which makes it the biggest AIDS epidemic in Europe, and this number is not thought to reflect actual levels (UNAIDS, WHO)of significant implication for the spread of HIV especially among women is their susceptibility to violence by their male counterpart.

Violence Against Women (VAW) is defined by WHO as “any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life”.

Acts of violence against women that impact on the spread of HIV/AIDS either directly or indirectly include (but not limited to) rape, polygamy, sexual harassment, child marriage, child sexual abuse, trafficking of women and girls, female genital mutilation, incest, female disinheritance, negative widowhood rites such as wife inheritance, widow ‘purification,’ etc .

A review of over 50 population-based studies performed in 35 countries prior to 1999 indicated that between 10% and 52% of women around the world reported that they have been physically abused by an intimate partner at some point in their lives, and between 10% and 30% reported that they have experienced sexual violence by an intimate partner. Between 10% and 27% of women and girls reported having been sexually abused, either as children or as adults (WHO). These figures reveal the high levels of vulnerability that women and girls are exposed to at different stages of their lives.

The strong link between violence, especially sexual violence is the fact that forced sex is usually unprotected. Where the abuser is positive, their victims stand the danger of getting infected without any fault of theirs. According to estimates, between 16% and 52% of women are physically assaulted by an intimate partner at least once in their lives.

This kind of assault is often associated with sexual violence, including rape (Piot.P, 1999). Not only does such violence expose women to HIV, it can also prevent them from caring for themselves in relation to HIV. Fear of abuse, violence, stigma and abandonment can be a real enough threat for some women not to seek out testing, or not to disclose their status to their partners or seek care and support for HIV when they know they are HIV positive.

Intimate partners are not the only danger. Violence can also come from strangers, including in the form of wanton rape. In some parts of the world, such as South Africa, roving gangs of young men rape women for sport (Piot.P1999). Rape is also used a deliberate weapon of war and genocide. Troops and militia target women and young girls for sexual violence. This has happened on a large scale in South Eastern Europe and many African countries, and examples in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Northern Uganda can be observed currently.

Available reports show that up to two million women are trafficked every year into forced labour and sexual exploitation around the world. The trafficking of women and girls has become a lucrative global industry controlled by powerful criminal organisations ( UNAIDS/UNFPA/UNIFEM) .

Every year hundreds of thousands of women and girls throughout the world are bought and sold into marriage, sex work and slavery. This criminal trade constitute a major threat to women’s health and their protection from getting infected with HIV. Although, concerted efforts are being made at the global level to check this menace, especially through law enforcement, more critical attention still needs to be paid to complex issues of globalisation and poverty that constantly make women highly vulnerable.

VAW is an extremely complex phenomenon, deeply rooted in gender- based power relations, sexuality, self identity and social institutions (Heise.L et al). Effectively addressing the issue of VAW would require building capacities for challenging structures and systems that perpetuate women subordination to their male counterparts at national, local and household levels.

Governments, as well as non governmental organizations must desist from paying lip service to issues of women empowerment. Plans for this must be properly backed by budgets at all levels of governance and also seen to be backed by appropriate action. Having a good and serious foundation for the promotion of women empowerment is the full domestication and implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

Preventing VAW requires resolving conflicts (international, national and communal) using non violent means. Women’s experiences during war situations are often highly dehumanizing and such circumstances increase their vulnerability to HIV infections.

Also critical to eradicating VAW, hence women’s vulnerability to HIV, is massive reform of laws in many countries across the world. Women must be legally free to prosecute cases of violence and laws that perpetually keep them in abusive relationships and laws that are generally prejudicial to women must be abolished. For example laws on rape are often narrowly defined as such marital rape is not recognized by the laws of many countries.

The need for countries to adopt a multi-sectoral approach to eradicating violence against women cannot be over emphasised. Sectors such as health, judiciary, education, military etc all have a great role to play in eradicating violence against women. Concerted efforts must be made at both national and local levels to ensure that there is a visible and efficient synergy in the response of the different sectors to issues of VAW.

The 16 days of Activism against Violence Against Women is a good time to further our cause in ensuring that the rights of women are attained. These 16 days give campaign supporters the opportunity to carry out activities and actions towards tackling the issues of women’s health. The linkage between HIV/AIDS and violence against women cannot be overemphasized as VAW increases women’s vulnerability to HIV infection.

The theme of the Call for action 2006 “Breaking the Ties that Bind Us: A Call for Action Against Women’s Vulnerability to HIV/AIDS” is very adept at this time. We therefore suggest that campaign supporters take action during these 16 days using the call for action intermingling it with different themes.

We particularly ask that you commemorate World AIDS Day by organizing events that brings together groups working on HIV/AIDS issues as well as distribute widely the call for action 2006. Please inform the WAHC Coordination office as you carry out your various activities and send us reports of your activities and pictures to be included in the next edition of the WAHC News.

Thank You!