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) –Kenya 

Alliance Against AIDS - Belize 

All-Ukrainian network of PLWH

ANANYA Mahila Okkutta and Global Concerns India

Argentina Youth Network Positive

Argentinean Network of Women Living with HIV/AIDS

ASEPO- Uruguay

Asia Pacific Alliance for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights (APA)

Asian-Pacific Resource and Research Centre for Women (ARROW)

Asosiación de trabajadoras sexuales del Perú

ATHENA Network

Balance –Mexico

Católicas por el Derecho a Decidir - Bolivia

Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE)

Colectivo Juvenil "Decide" – Bolivia

Commission on Justice, Peace and Creation, National Council of Churches - India

Comunidade Internacional de Mulheres Vivendo com HIV AIDS - ICW Brazil

Corporación Kimirina - Ecuador

Development Connections - USA, Peru, Dominican Republic, Argentina

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 – Brazil

Grassroots Empowerment Trust – Kenya

Gender Equality & HIV Prevention Programme, HEARD

GRUPAJUS- Brazil

Grupo de Información en Reproducción Elegida (GIRE) - México

Imagine Kenya

Indonesia AIDS Coalition

Inhijambia - Nicaragua

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 Asia Pacific)

International Community of Women with HIV/AIDS West Africa (ICW West Africa)

International Services Association - India

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 - Bolivia

Mujer y Salud en Uruguay (MYSU)

NACOSA - South Africa

Northern NGO Coalition on AIDS (NNCA)

Observatorio de Género y Equidad - Chile

Observatorio Latino

Positively UK

Pozfem UK

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 - Brazil

Salamander Trust

Servicios Humanitarios en Salud Sexual y Reproductiva, AC - Mexico

South African National AIDS Council Women's Sector

STOP AIDS NOW!

Supecha Baotip from BaanNum Guesthouse

Thai Positive Women’s Network

UNASSE; AC - Mexico

UNGASS AIDS Forum on SRH

WECARE+

Women living with HIV who use Drugs - Kenya

Women Won't Wait Campaign (WWW)

World AIDS Campaign

World YWCA

SOURCE: WUNRN