Achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls through the HIV response
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19 July 2023
On the periphery of the IAS 2011 conference taking place in Rome from 17-20 July 2011, UNAIDS in collaboration with the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS (GCWA), ATHENA, Salamander Trust, WECARe+ and Network Persone Seropositive convened a town hall dialogue to discuss how the HIV response facilitates the achievement of sexual and reproductive health and rights for all women, including women living with HIV, at every stage of their lives.
For women living with HIV stigma and discrimination and gender-based violence acutely affect their access to comprehensive services and human rights. Within health services, they often face a lack of choice with regard to family planning; disapproval from service providers with regard to meeting sexuality and fertility desires; and violation of their sexual and reproductive rights in the form of coerced or forced abortion or sterilization. Participants agreed that advancing the health and rights of women in all their diversity is fundamental to the success of the HIV response, just as the HIV response is a critical avenue for achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for women.
The event was also used as a platform to launch a report Community Innovation: Achieving sexual and reproductive health and rights for women and girls through the HIV response. Compiled by UNAIDS and the ATHENA Network, it presents case studies pioneering community undertakings to advance women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights through the HIV response and vice-versa, from different community perspectives. This report recognizes that women face unique challenges to access and fulfil their sexual and reproductive health and rights, including gender-based violence, and therefore have less access to HIV prevention, care and support services.
Women and girls at the community level, and at every level, must be supported to demand quality services that meet their needs and those of their community
UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme, Dr Paul De Lay.
“Women and girls at every level and throughout different stages of their lives must be supported to demand quality services that meet their needs and those of their community,” said UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, Programme, Dr Paul De Lay.
Learning from these community case studies is an opportunity to enhance the AIDS response, in light of the Millennium Development Goals and the 2011 Political Declaration on HIV/AIDS. The case studies indicate that for responses to be effective they must include the empowerment and inclusion of women in all their diversity, dedicate attention to sexual and reproductive health, including improvements in maternal and child health, and address the socio-cultural practices underlying gender inequality.
UNAIDS Getting to zero: strategy 2011-2015 also places gender equality and human rights as one of three core pillars. This report is part of that commitment to ensuring that women and girls’ rights are met through the HIV response and it was undertaken in the context of the UNAIDS Agenda for accelerated country action for women, girls, gender equality and HIV.
“UNAIDS continues to be a strong advocate for women’s health and rights, as well as to strongly stand against stigma and discrimination amongst all marginalized groups. We will continue to do so until we have achieved the vision of zero discrimination,” said Dr De Lay.
Lessons Learned from Addressing the Coerced Sterilization of Women Living with HIV in Namibia: A Best Practice Model
The coerced sterilization of women living with HIV is an ongoing, and largely invisible, human rights violation in Namibia, and globally, with documented incidents from South Africa to Chile. In order to develop a best practice model for other countries to use and adapt as a tool to document and address the coerced sterilization of positive women within the framework of advancing the sexual and reproductive health and rights of positive women, the Namibia Women’s Health Network, AIDS Legal Network, and ATHENA have:
- Documented and analyzed the approaches used to highlight the practice of coerced sterilization of young women living with HIV in Namibia, including the strategies used to build an evidence base;
- Documented and analyzed the advocacy responses to this practice;
- Documented and analyzed the litigation processes from a community perspective pertaining to coerced/forced sterilization of women living with HIV in Namibia;
- Identified the lessons learned, both successes and challenges; and,
- Outlined ‘best practice’ as a tool for other countries in the region to share experiences and adapt to national contexts.
Our report reviews how a multi-pronged strategy has been utilized in the Namibian context. Through this multi-pronged strategy, the Namibian experience demonstrates how documentation, advocacy, and litigation processes can all work together to address rights violations, hold the government accountable for what is taking place in its public hospitals, and afford redress to women who have been violated. Further, the report highlights how an issue that is both invisible and contentious can be made visible and be brought to mainstream audiences through community-led documentation and alliance building spearheaded by women living with HIV. Examining the experiences of the Namibia Women’s Health Network and her partners, the report seeks to tell a narrative of empowerment and accountability where, in part, the empowerment comes from seeking accountability.
Make It Everyone's Business - Fact Sheet
Make It Everyone's Business - Report
Bridging the Gap: Addressing Emerging Trends and Neglected Issues at the Intersection of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV.
ATHENA has launched the Bridging the Gap series at the Fourth National South African AIDS Conference.
- ‘Mapping Emerging Trends and Neglected Issues at the Intersection of Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights and HIV’, as an outcome document from the ATHENA 2008 SRHR and HIV Retreat.
- Fact Sheet on ‘HPV, Cervical Cancer, and HIV: Screening and Prevention’, authored by Fiona Hale.
- Policy Brief ‘Developing a Human Rights Framework to Address Coerced Sterilization and Abortion: Articulating the Principle of Free and Informed Decision-Making’, authored by the Health Equity and Law Clinic, International Reproductive and Sexual Health Law. Program of the University of Toronto.
- Case Study ‘Documenting Human Rights Violations in Healthcare Settings: Experiences of HIV Positive Women in Namibia’, containing the direct documentation of Namibia Women’s Health Network members.
Bridging the Gap report
These materials are part of a broader initiative to advance the
sexual and reproductive health and rights of women living with HIV,
particularly the right to safe, healthy motherhood and to reproductive
choices. The broader initiative includes the on-going development of
human rights frameworks, policy briefs, and fact sheets; the use of
human rights mechanisms, including the United Nations Special
Rapporteur; community-led documentation projects; capacity building; and
community mobilization.
With support from the Packard Foundation
Population Program, the ATHENA Network has formed and launched a
Reference Group to identify and address emerging trends and neglected
issues at the intersection of sexual and reproductive health and rights
(SRHR) and HIV, with a core focus on the priorities and perspectives of
women living with, and affected by, HIV.
Current ATHENA Reference
Group members include the AIDS Legal Network, Center for Reproductive
Rights, Health Systems Trust, ICW, ICW Southern Africa, Ipas, Namibia
Women’s Health Network, and the Salamander Trust.
