消除对妇女歧视委员会开展关于艾滋病毒与妇女权利之间的联系的小组讨论

2013年7月25日

讨论消除与艾滋病毒相关的成见和歧视，机构间合作和提供服务

消除对妇女歧视委员会今天早上开展了关于艾滋病毒与妇女权利之间的联系的小组讨论。

委员会主席妮科尔·阿默林表示：委员会已就提高妇女意识和提供减少艾滋病毒传播方面的信息向各缔约国提供了指导和建议。妇女应被视为应对疾病传播中变革的推动者，而这需要通过教育、公众和政治参与实现。委员会通过与缔约国进行建设性讨论，致力于增加与艾滋病毒和艾滋病相关的数据流。

联合国开发计划署驻日内瓦办事处主任、讨论组主持人佩特拉·兰兹对所有参与活动组织的人表示感谢，并表示：年轻妇女作为更易受到早婚、暴力和歧视影响的群体，目前很容易受到艾滋病毒侵害。本届会议的目的就是使艾滋病毒和妇女权利之间的联系更加清楚。

人权事务副高级专员弗拉维亚·潘谢里表示：随着艾滋病毒感染程度的下降，我们应对已取得的进展感到骄傲。艾滋病毒/艾滋病并不仅仅是一个医学问题，它还有其社会、文化和经济方面的影响。为妇女赋权提供了可能实现的最好保护。消除对妇女歧视委员会发挥了重要作用，并对与该问题相关的人权框架中的重要元素做出了巨大贡献。

联合国艾滋病规划署副执行主任简·比格尔女士在主旨演讲中表示：死亡人数和感染人数减少，获得治疗的人数记录等方面都取得了进步。生理因素使妇女较为脆弱，而社会和文化因素更是加剧了这一问题。对妇女和女童的歧视继续助长着疫情，对该群体进行投资才能有效解决此问题。

艾滋病法律项目执行主任雅琴达·尼亚切表示：在非洲的环境下，为保证妇女获得所需治疗，有必要确保实施相关国际文书。另外还需要对妇女权利进行适当监督，如诉诸司法等，还需要考虑法律是否已得以实施。

委员会成员西奥多拉·欧比·恩万科沃表示：委员会利用《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》解决使人们容易感染艾滋病毒的结构性不平等问题。委员会通过了一项基于人权的方法，将降低艾滋病毒传播和人权联系起来。委员会在结论性意见和建议中敦促缔约国解决妇女在实现实质平等中的历史和累计劣势问题。

联合国妇女署副执行主任、代理主管拉克希米·普里表示：联合国妇女署的工作立足于《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》。作为联合国艾滋病规划署的捐助方，联合国妇女署在工作中充分考虑《公约》影响。妇女需要参与性别赋权相关的政策和方案制定。

一些观众提出了艾滋病毒通过常规医疗服务传播、对性工作者和被贩运者的保护、加强《消除对妇女一切形式歧视公约》和女同性恋者作为弱势群体的状况等观点和问题。

委员会将于7月26日星期五中午再次召开公众会议，届时会议将闭幕。

Opening Remarks

PETRA LANZ, Director of the United Nations Development Programme’s Office in Geneva, and Moderator of the panel, thanked all those involved in the organization of the event, saying the face of HIV was now often a young woman as a group more prone to early marriage, violence and discrimination. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women had done a great deal to raise awareness of issues. The inclusion of HIV issues in country reports had been disappointing. The purpose of the session was to make the link between HIV and women’s rights very clear.

NICOLE AMELINE, Chair of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, said 34 million people today had HIV, 15 million of these women. The majority of these lived in sub-Saharan Africa. Women were disproportionately affected and vulnerable to HIV, and those suffering from the condition faced stigma in accessing services. States parties had been given guidance by the Committee and it had been underlined that women were more vulnerable to infection unless they were given information on transmission. States parties had been encouraged to increase the role of men in relevant measures and to adopt measures to stop discrimination against women. Health policies should consider the human rights perspective. On the post-2015 agenda, the heads of the human rights treaty bodies had issued a statement calling for specific human rights indicators to monitor progress towards sustainable development, stressing the importance of linking targets to responsibilities. Women should be considered agents of change in addressing the spread of the disease and this came from education and public and political participation. The Committee was dedicated to increase the flow of data on the spread of the infection through its constructive discussions with Member States.

FLAVIA PANSIERI, Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, said 25 million people had lost their lives to AIDS and 60 million people had become HIV positive. There were, however, positive trends. The rate of new infections seemed to be levelling off, a reflection of awareness raising. Problem areas remained in sub-Saharan Africa, where one in 20 people was infected. Pride should be taken in the progress made. HIV/AIDS was not a medical issue alone and it had social, cultural and economic implications. It also carried tones of exclusion, poverty and discrimination. Gender discrimination was at the heart of the greater vulnerability that women faced and when their access to education and employment was unequal then the threat they were exposed to was greater. Female sex workers were 13.5 times more likely to be living with HIV. Work needed to be done to address the marginalisation of women as the cause of this. This was not a women’s issue, but a societal issue. Empowering women provided the best possible protection. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women played an important role and had made a great contribution on important elements for a human rights framework on this issue.

Keynote Address

JAN BEAGLE, UNAIDS Deputy Executive Director, said UNAIDS brought together the efforts of 11 system organizations, as this was so much more than a health issue, it touched development, human rights, gender and inequality. The strategy through to 2015 was based on zero new infections, zero discrimination and zero AIDS-related deaths. There was progress as seen in falling numbers of deaths, fewer infections and a record number of people accessing treatment. Biological factors made women more vulnerable, though this was exacerbated by social and cultural factors. Discrimination against women and girls continued to fuel the epidemic. HIV was still the leading cause of death of women of reproductive age, and young women had infection rates twice as high as those of men. Sex workers and drug users also had high prevalence rates. Punitive laws were ineffective in halting the rate of transmission; instead they were pushing women underground. Trans-women also constituted another population heavily affected, with one in five such women HIV-positive. Advancing the rights of this group must be a priority. Investments in women and girls were key to halting and reversing the epidemic. The Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women could be central in addressing the gender-related determinants of vulnerability to HIV, such as in the appropriate provision of health services.

Linking HIV and sexual and reproductive health services was important as it allowed women to access all services in the same place. It must be ensured that mothers had their rights as women upheld and they had access to accurate information to make informed choices. There was clear evidence of a link between HIV and gender-based violence. A social transformation was needed to end AIDS, one that shifted from punitive approaches to evidence and rights-based approaches. Ending new HIV infections and AIDS related deaths would not be possible without attention to the social and legal contexts in which people lived. It was necessary to reach out to other sectors to ensure people in decision making positions had correct information about HIV. In shaping the post-2015 agenda the critical lessons learned from the global AIDS response, including the experiences honed from the Joint Programme’s multisectoral and rights-based approach, could be seen as a pathfinder for a transformative development agenda.

Panel Discussion

JACINTA NYACHAE, Executive Director of AIDS Law Project, said in the African context it was necessary to ensure the implementation of international instruments to make sure that women got access to the treatment they needed. Most countries would say they had appropriate laws, but it was necessary to consider the gender framing of such laws and to see what concrete actions could be taken in cases of discrimination. The appropriate monitoring of women’s rights was also needed, such as in access to justice. Consideration also needed to be made as to whether laws had been implemented. Did laws cover the provision of sexual and reproductive rights for young people? Could those under 18 years of age have access to testing? Were governments putting into place structures to allow women to have access to maternal health services? Issues of forced sterilisation were a concern and a gross violation of human rights. This could push women away from accessing health services, despite the fact that they were provided free of charge. Were women aware of the programmes available to them? Were services accessible in terms of the parameters within which they were offered? Were guidelines on HIV treatment shared? What barriers were there to the access to medicines? The criminalisation of the trade in sex and transmission of HIV also needed addressing as it was unhelpful.

THEODORA OBY NWANKWO, Member of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, said the Committee used the Convention to address the structural inequalities that made people vulnerable to HIV. The Committee adopted a human rights based approach and the concluding observations of the Committee linked lowering HIV transmission to human rights. In concluding observations and recommendations, States parties were urged to address the historical and cumulative disadvantage of women in achieving substantive equality. Programmes and policies on HIV should be aligned with the principles of the Convention. The Committee in its concluding observations and recommendations had required States parties to report on their efforts to address stigma on HIV, and refrain from blocking women’s access to HIV treatment, among other elements of ensuring access to health services and education. The Committee had called for clear guidelines on getting informed consent before sterilisation and that practitioners completing such acts without permission should be subject to redress, and victims put in line for compensation. It had been explained to States parties that they should protect women with HIV from discrimination by private actors. Resources for programmes to educate adolescents on the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases were required and services for immigrant women also needed to be covered. States parties should enhance the role of women as primary care providers, as the provision of services by men could itself be a barrier. Cooperation with other United Nations organizations was also sought to share information.

Closing Remarks

LAKSHMI PURI, Acting Executive Director of UN Women, said support was needed for women, including providing health care as well as financing for responses and strategies. Substantial, sustained and predictable resources were needed. HIV prevention and response must be grounded in human rights. Which other international laws impacted on this topic? The ongoing efforts of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women were welcome in their provision of concrete recommendations to States parties and guidance on HIV and AIDS issues. The work done in UN Women was grounded in the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. As a UNAIDS sponsor, UN Women took the engendering of the Convention into their work on that side. More focus was needed on the factors that put women at risk of infection and the connections to empowerment and gender responsive budgeting and planning. Intersectionality with women of all vulnerable groups should also be taken into account. This was not simply an issue of access to services, instead it was related to access to human rights and justice.

There was an urgent need for young girls to have access to sexual education and to draw attention to harmful practices that deprived women of their right to use contraception. The recommendations of the Committee were a crucial tool in drawing attention to concerns and to request action to address the root causes of the epidemic. The Committee had also recognised that women and girls were more vulnerable due to gender-specific norms and unequal power relations. It was necessary to bring together all United Nations agencies and all their partners, and better engage civil society. Member States should have programmes to promote employment for women with HIV. Women needed to participate in the creation of policies and programmes on gender empowerment. There needed to be continued support by UN Women to civil society to help prepare shadow reports and to support CEDAW on HIV/AIDS issues.

Questions and Answers

A member of the audience said the majority of health care provision was carried out by women. It was necessary to link up on access to clean water for those caring for persons with AIDS. A member of the Committee said from historical experience it was necessary to address sexual violence as a key determinant of transmission. A member of the audience asked about instruments to be used against Member States that did not follow the recommendations. Ms. Pansieri replied, saying the use of needles, not only in drug users, but also common medical practice was to be considered. A question was posed from the internet as to how the Committee could become an instrument for the protection of sex workers. Ms. Oby Nwankwo said the situation of sex workers could be addressed through concluding observations and recommendations. There was also a complaint mechanism that could be accessed once national remedies were exhausted. Members of the audience said lesbian women around the world needed to be married in order to survive and so also were at risk of infection and should be considered in policy provision. A question from the internet was posed with regards to managing infection risks among trafficked women. Ms. Lanz replied saying the provision of services and information should be made for all persons regardless of their immigration or legal status.


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