Posts Tagged ‘UNAIDS’

Please take the time to read this letter written after consultation held with
the UNAIDS Executive Director, Michel Sidibe during Marchin New York which included the
World AIDS Campaign’s Women’s Coordinator, Claudia Ahumada.
It outlines key priorities for the women’s movement and commitments from UNAIDS.

March 10, 2009

Michele Sidibe
Executive Director, UNAIDS
20, Avenue Appia
CH-1211 Geneva 27
Switzerland

Dear Michel Sidibe,

We are writing to express our sincere gratitude for meeting with women leaders from around the world during the Commission on the Status of Women, on March 3, 2009, at the Ford Foundation. Your openness to dialogue and commitment to ensuring that the work of UNAIDS addresses sexual and reproductive heath and women’s rights are most welcome.

We greatly appreciate your public pledge to concretely address the following during your tenure at UNAIDS:

•                 Comprehensive sexuality education, particularly for young people
•                 Violence against women
•                 Comprehensive approaches to sexual and reproductive health and HIV
•                 Mother-to-child/vertical transmission of HIV
•                 Access to female condoms
•                 Fostering collaboration between the HIV and women’s movements
•                 And the centrality of women’s rights to the work of UNAIDS.

We also welcome your candid conversation with us that signals a commitment on your part to remove artificial divides in the fight against HIV/AIDS, bringing together human rights, gender equality and sexual and reproductive health to the center of the global response to HIV/AIDS, including by not shying away from the public health issue of unsafe abortion.

As you suggested, we will be working with your staff in our countries to advance this agenda. It would help enormously if the following could happen to facilitate this:

1.                 UNAIDS sharing this record of our meeting with your country and regional staff
2.                 Including meetings with women’s groups in your meeting agendas when you visit countries and communities
3.                 Including women’s rights organizations as a specific constituency for all UNAIDS consultation processes

Your leadership is essential to continue engaging with women’s organizations in strengthening UNAIDS’ work on advancing gender equality as a crucial response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

We look forward to continuing this effort and making our joint vision a reality fo women, men and young people around the world.

Sincerely,

Claudia Ahumada, Women’s Campaign Coordinator, World AIDS Campaign
Carmen Barroso, Regional Director, International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region, USA/Latin America and the Caribbean.
Mabel Bianco, Director, Fundación para Estudio e Investigación de la Mujer (FEIM) and International AIDS Women’s Caucus (IAWC), Argentina.
Ishita Chaudhry, Founder & CEO, The YP Foundation, New Delhi, India.
Lesley Ann Foster, President, Amanitare Sexual Rights Network, Africa Region.
Gigi Francisco, General Coordinator, Development Alternatives with Women for A New Era (DAWN), Philippines.
Alexandra Garita, Senior International Advocacy Coordinator IPPF/WHR and North America Delegate to the UNAIDS PCB NGO Delegation.
Adrienne Germain, President, International Women’s Health Coalition, USA/Global.
Nyaradzai Gumbonzvanda, General Secretary, World YWCA, Switzerland/Global.
Edinah Masiyiwa, Executive Director, Women’s Action Group (WAG), Zimbabwe.
Anita Nayar, Research Coordinator Political Ecology, Development Alternatives with Women for A New Era (DAWN).
Wanda Nowicka, President, Polish Federation for Women and Family Planning; and ASTRA -Central and Eastern European Women’s Movement for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, Poland/Eastern Europe.
Zo Randriamaro, Training Coordinator, Development Alternatives with Women for A New Era (DAWN).
Ishita Sharma, Coordinator, The YP Foundation, New Dehi, India.
Serra Sippel, Executive Director, Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), USA/Global.
Elisa Slattery, Regional Manager and Legal Adviser, Africa Program, Center for Reproductive Rights, USA/Global.