Just in time for International Women's Day this year, the Women Won't Wait campaign launched a timely report recognizing the intersectionality of violence against women and HIV/AIDS. "Show Us the Money: Is Violence Against Women on the HIV&AIDS Funding Agenda?" by an international coalition of human rights and health organizations, calls for changes in the policies, programming and funding streams of national governments and international agencies.
Other IWD information:
International Women's Day 2007
Human Rights Watch: Women's Rights Division
Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, discusses the importance of promoting women's health this International Women's Day:
"On International Women's Day, I invite you to join me in celebrating women worldwide. Women are the backbone of all our societies - as leaders, as caregivers, and as mothers. Yet on this day and every day, we remember that too many women in the world lack access to the most basic health care.
Women have particular needs and face specific health issues. However, the health needs of women are given neither the attention nor the prominence they deserve. Each year, for example, more than half a million women die from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth alone - a number that has hardly changed in 20 years. In 2006, 74% of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa were young women.
This year's International Women's Day is devoted to ending impunity for violence against women and girls. We know that intimate partner violence is the most common form of violence in women’s lives - much more so than assault or rape by strangers or acquaintances. The high level of physical and sexual violence committed by an intimate male partner has shocking consequences for women's health. Furthermore, one in five women reports being sexually abused before the age of 15, which is associated with ill health for years to come.
The health of women is given far too little space in plans for development and too little attention in many health agendas...."
2 comments:
Thanks for highlighting the "Women Won't Wait" campaign in your blog. Please be sure to check out the campaign's website and report at www.womenwontwait.org.
You're welcome! It was an inspirational press conference. Please feel free to post more entries on this issue.
Post a Comment