Ending Violence against Women
Fighting gender-based violence is a major concern for UNIFEM, because violence against women is a universal problem and one of the most widespread violations of human rights. One in three women will suffer some form of violence in her lifetime, becoming part of an epidemic that devastates lives, fractures communities and stalls development. Despite some progress on this issue over the past decade, its horrendous scale remains mostly unacknowledged. New dimensions include the global trafficking of women and girls.
For the better part of the 1990s, Caribbean women's organizations, national machineries for women, the courts and the police have been engaged in dialogue and action to ensure protection and justice for victims of gender-based violence. Through public education, advocacy, the extension of services and law reform, a change in cultural attitudes has occurred. Freedom from violence is now understood as a human right to which women are entitled to and for which the State has an obligation to guarantee.
However, in spite of the progress made, there is a widespread perception that violence against women is on the increase. An increasing number of women are being killed by their partners, though this rate varies considerably across the region. Some studies have also suggested an increase in rapes and sexual offences.
UNIFEM, through its programmes, is supporting the states and NGOs to develop and strengthen integrated responses which address law enforcement, health, judicial, education, housing and community advocacy for the purposes of protection, provision of services; justice; and prevention. Further, UNIFEM continues to support women's organisations in their advocacy campaigns against gender-based violence, particularly through the Violence against Women Trust Fund and during the 16 Days of Activism, 25 November - 10 December, every year.
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Halting and Reversing the Spread of HIV/AIDS among Women and Girls
Across the world, HIV/AIDS threatens the lives and rights of individuals, severely restricting their hope for development. Countries with the highest HIV-prevalence rates face consequences that include the loss of people able to run the government, businesses and vital public services. This sets the stage for both individual suffering and social and economic decline. Tragically, social stigmas related to HIV/AIDS still hinder efforts to stem the disease in all regions of the world. For women, the picture is made more complex by gender inequality, poverty and blatant violations of women's rights - without tackling these issues, overall efforts to address the epidemic will be futile.
The research from the Caribbean and elsewhere shows that there are profound differences in the underlying causes and consequences of HIV/AIDS infections among men and women.
These differences reflect in turn differences in biology, sexual behaviour, social attitudes, economic dependency and vulnerability.
HIV/AIDS therefore is inherently a gender-based issue and it has been argued that HIV/AIDS will only be conquered when the effort to achieve gender equality is successful.
Gender analysis forms the basis for the changes required to create an environment in which women and men can protect themselves and each other.
Gender analysis is crucial to understanding HIV/AIDS transmission and initiating appropriate programmes of action. HIV/AIDS programming therefore has to come to terms with the gendered causes of the epidemic.
Connections need to be understood between gender relations and gender ideologies that drive behaviour, sexual expression and culture if the prevention programmes are to have impact on behaviour.
Policy and programmatic approaches must be sufficiently multi-sectoral and inter-disciplinary and respond to the question of how gender relations and how reinforce vulnerability and risk.
UNIFEM Caribbean Office, which is a member of the PANCAP Initiative, supports the development and implementation of a capacity building programme to support a deeper incorporation of gender analysis and planning within HIV/AIDS work on prevention, treatment and care and stigma and discrimination.
This work is being done in conjunction with the Centre for Gender and Development Studies, St. Augustine Campus under the guidance on an Ad Hoc Working Group on Gender and HIV/AIDS.
The working Group is comprised of representation from UNAIDS, UNDP, ECLAC, the Caribbean Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (CRN+), the Caribbean Coalition of National AIDS Programme Coordinators (CCNAPC), the Bureau of Gender Affairs, Barbados, and PANCAP.
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Human Rights and Sex Work in the Caribbean
Globally, sex workers are regarded as one of the leading vulnerable groups in the discourse around HIV&AIDS. A review of the Caribbean Regional Strategic Framework for HIV&AIDS of the Pan Caribbean Partnership Against HIV&AIDS (PANCAP), as well as select Caribbean national strategic plans for HIV&AIDS, have also indicated that sex workers are among the vulnerable populations. However, without a gender lens applied to the analysis, they fail to capture the nuances of these vulnerabilities.
Through the Unified Budget and Workplan (UBW) facility provided by the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) to the Caribbean Group on HIV&AIDS, UNIFEM is undertaking a Legal and Policy Analysis of Sex Work in selected Caribbean countries. The project aims to provide technical support for the development of rights-based and integrated policy responses to sex work to reduce gender, cultural and socio-economic vulnerabilities.
