Media Advisory: Breakthrough Report on Violence Against Girls and Women to be Released
The Global AIDS Alliance will release a new report in its Zero Tolerance Campaign to address violence against women and girls and HIV/AIDS. The report, Political Breakthrough: Mobilizing Accelerated Action to End Violence Against Women and Girls by 2015, examines important new policies from three major HIV/AIDS donors and normative agencies, PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and UNAIDS, and analyzes and makes recommendations to enable lifesaving opportunities in a new political environment and addresses gaps left unfilled.
The report will highlight progress made, the contributions of civil society, and the importance of political will in tackling violence and HIV/AIDS. It will also make recommendations for how PEPFAR, the Global Fund, UNAIDS and global and local civil society must work together to ensure this opportunity is not wasted, but leads to successful, multisectoral and scaled-up lifesaving responses. Violence against women and girls is a primary barrier to achieving universal access to HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment. Indeed, without addressing violence against women and girls, the multibillion dollar fight against AIDS is sure to fail.
WHEN: Tuesday, July 20th at 1 p.m.
WHERE: Press Conference Room 3, International AIDS Conference Media Center
WHO: Yvonne Chaka Chaka, United Nations MDG Envoy for Africa Dr. Sabrina Bakeera-Kitaka, President of the Uganda Pediatric Association
Lisa Schechtman, Policy Director, Global AIDS Alliance
Dr. Jantine Jacobi, Team Leader, Women, Girls and Gender Equality, and Director, Global Coalition on Women and AIDS, UNAIDS
Ntombekhaya Matsha-Carpterntier, Senior Civil Society Officer, The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
WHAT: Release of the new report Political Breakthrough: Mobilizing Accelerated Action to End Violence Against Women and Girls by 2015 and a panel discussion on the importance of stopping violence against women and girls, and discussion of implications of new policies and funding streams for improved impact on HIV/AIDS.
WHY: Around the world, one in three women will be beaten, raped or coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Evidence has shown that in the majority of cases the perpetrator is a trusted male relative or member of her community. Violence against women and girls is both a cause and a consequence of HIV/AIDS around the world and, much as HIV requires a multisectoral, multi-stakeholder response, so too does violence against women and girls.