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FOUND 18
The mantra ‘Nothing about us without us’ speaks to the imperative of HIV service providers considering the needs of those served. Despite the increased risk of women who use drugs acquiring a blood borne virus and experiences of state and social forms of gender-based violence, there is a distinct lack of women focused harm reduction services. This interview highlights how the use of feminist theory frameworks with art and story telling…
The brief highlights the intersections between age, gender, and drug use, making the case for why young women who use drugs are particularly at risk of HIV transmission and not adequately reached through mainstream health services. The brief also offers some recommendations for how our HIV response can better meet the needs of young women affected by HIV and drug use.
The Global progress report on HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections assesses the World Health Organization’s three ongoing Global Health Sector Strategies on HIV, Viral Hepatitis and STIs, noting progress and gaps and identifying actions to improve impact. The report highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the deep social, economic and gender inequalities which increase people’s vulnerability to disease and determines…
UNAIDS issued a new guidance on how to reduce stigma and discrimination in the context of COVID-19. The guidance is based on the latest evidence on what works to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination and applies it to COVID-19. Addressing stigma and discrimination in the COVID-19 response provides countries with rights-based guidance across six specific settings: community, workplace, education, health care, justice and emergency/…
UNAIDS report on the global AIDS pandemic 2020 shows that women and girls in sub-Saharan Africa continue to be the most affected and accounted for 59% of all new HIV infections in the region in 2019, with 4500 adolescent girls and young women between 15 and 24 years old becoming infected with HIV every week. Young women accounted for 24% of new HIV infections in 2019, despite making up only 10% of the population in sub-Saharan Africa.
On Zero Discrimination Day this year, UNAIDS is challenging the discrimination faced by women and girls in all their diversity in order to raise awareness and mobilize action to promote equality and empowerment for women and girls.
Across the world, gender inequality, violence, poverty and insecurity continue to stoke excessive HIV risk among women and girls, especially those in marginalized and excluded communities.
Increasing and sustaining engagement in HIV care for people living with HIV are critical to both individual therapeutic benefit and epidemic control. Men are less likely to test for HIV compared with women in sub-Saharan African countries, and ultimately have delayed entry to HIV care. Stigma is known to impede such engagement, placing an importance on understanding and addressing stigma to improve HIV testing and care outcomes. This study aimed…
The Joint Statement on Ending Discrimination in Health Care Settings, signed by twelve United Nations entities, urges stakeholders to take a targeted approach to end discriminatory laws and policies, empower health workers and users of health services, support the accountability and compliance of non-discrimination and implement the United Nations Shared Framework for Action on Combating Inequalities and Discrimination.
The rapid assessment elicited basic gender and cultural perceptions and beliefs related to HIV, to people living with HIV in general and to women, in particular that posed barriers to the uptake of and adherence to HIV services. The findings revealed, across all sites, substantive gaps in comprehensive HIV knowledge, with cultural perceptions and beliefs about HIV and gender roles often acting as effective deterrents to service access. Women…
This Overview Report analyses why and how HIV/AIDS is now disproportionately affecting women. It explores new gender-sensitive approaches to fighting HIV/AIDS and suggests that in order to be effective, it is necessary to deal with the inequalities that both drive and are entrenched by the epidemic. It specifically addresses stigma and the need to transform gender relations.
This publication provides evidence on the gender dimensions of HIV-related stigma and how this stigma affects women differently than man in Ethiopia, Dominican Republic and Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, over half of women have experienced stigma from a friend or neighbour: 87 per cent have decided not to get married as a result of their HIV status; and nearly a fifth feel suicidal. In Ethiopia only 45 per cent of women have disclosed their status…
The Dominican Republic is in the middle of a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic, which is spreading faster among women than men. In this context, many women face human rights violations on at least two major fronts: in the workplace and when they use government prenatal or other health care services. Women are at increased risk of HIV infection and there is increased incidence of HIV-related human rights violations in the workplace and the health care…
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), in partnership with organizations in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Zambia, led a study of HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in these three countries. This project, conducted from April 2001 to September 2003, unraveled the complexities around stigma by investigating the causes, manifestations and consequences of HIV and AIDS-related stigma and discrimination in sub-Saharan Africa…
The World AIDS Campaign for the years 2002-2003 will focus on stigma and discrimination. The main objective of the campaign is to prevent, reduce and ultimately eliminate HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination, wherever it occurs and in all its forms. The aim of this conceptual framework is to: create a common understanding of HIV/AIDS-related stigma and discrimination; highlight some existing interventions targeting HIV/AIDS-related…
The International Center for Research on Women (ICRW) and the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Hanoi, are investigating the causes, manifestations, and consequences of HIV-related stigma and discrimination at the community level in Vietnam. This research explores the community context in which HIV-related stigma occurs and the extent to which the stigma associated with injection drug use and sex work intersects with that of people…
This report describes research conducted on issues of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination, stigmatization, and denial in central and western Uganda in 1997-98. The report describes the aims, methods, and findings of the research, with a particular emphasis on the forms and determinants of DSD and the responses to it. The research moves beyond previous research on DSD and in contrast, aims to offer an account of how DSD operates, and what causes…
This report describes a research project conducted in India which emphasizes forms and determinants of HIV/AIDS-related discrimination, stigmatization, and denial. It offers an account of how DSD operates, and what causes it, in a range of contexts in two contrasting regions. The report provides a discussion of the gendered nature of HIV-related discrimination, and finds that there was clear evidence that the HIV/AIDS-related discrimination…