I send warm greetings on International Women’s Day 2007 to the members of the Joint Consortium of Irish Human Rights, Humanitarian and Development Agencies, Irish Aid and the Defence Forces, who have been working together over the past three years on deepening their understanding of, and responses to, gender based violence. This is a significant example of real leadership from Ireland on a critical issue for women and girls that I have mentioned proudly at several international meetings, and most recently during an audio press conference earlier this week in New York.
The occasion was the launch of a somewhat similar initiative at the international level that I would like to introduce to members of the Joint Consortium. An international campaign, called “Women Won’t Wait” led by a coalition of organisations and networks in the global North and South working for many years to promote women’s health and human rights, seeks to accelerate effective responses to the linkages of violence against all women and girls and the spread of HIV by tracking and, where necessary, calling for changes in the policies, programming and funding streams of national governments and international multilateral and bilateral donor and technical agencies. A report has been prepared by Susana T. Fried called: Show Us the Money: Is Violence Against Women on the HIV & AIDS Funding Agenda? Details of the launch and campaign can be found at www.womenwontwait.org.
Meanwhile, I understand that the GBV Consortium is hosting a public event today with Professor Charlotte Watts from the Center on Gender Violence at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, on the theme of Gender Based Violence and HIV/AIDS. I am pleased to learn that today’s event will be building links between Irish agencies working on gender based violence in Ireland, and those working on the same issue abroad.
Gender based violence is a human rights abuse that transcends nationality, ethnicity, and socio-economic status, that occurs here in Ireland and in every country around the world. The damage it does to men and boys must be addressed, but its most vicious and pervasive effects are felt by women and girls worldwide, suffering violence that is too often perpetrated by the men closest to them. It is both a driver and a consequence of other human rights abuses, and it has a particularly destructive symbiotic relationship with HIV and AIDS. We must recognise that sexual and physical violence, particularly against women, is driving the HIV/AIDS pandemic, and in turn issues relating to HIV and AIDS often become excuses for more violence, whether it is the rape of young girls by those mistakenly hoping to avoid or cure HIV, the beatings inflicted on a wife who reveals her HIV positive status to her husband, or the violence that is the response when one partner suggests using condoms within a relationship.
Let us hope that these parallel efforts in Ireland and internationally will bring home that different approaches are needed to address the intersection between HIV/AIDS and violence against women and girls, which include political will, financial and human resources and a wide range of creative and strategic interventions.
I wish you a successful outcome of the Dublin event, and look forward to meeting you again in November for a further stock taking.
