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The first ever High Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development (HLPF) took place in New York City July 11–20, 2016. The theme was ‘Ensuring That No One is Left Behind,’ focusing on the Sustainable Development Goals, including implementation, partnerships, technology, and poverty (see the link to the program here).

Session 6: Ensuring that no one is left behind – Creating peaceful and more inclusive societies and empowering women and girls, aimed to address the needs of women and girls via the 11 SDG goals that contain gender focused indicators. Session 6 can be viewed here.

The HLPF included the first global SDG reporting process, called Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs), in which countries who volunteered to participate in this year’s review shared SDG experiences and good practices.

The United Nations Secretary General created flexible guidelines for the VNRs, and the review process requires a written report. This year, 22 governments volunteered for national reviews of their progress in implementing the SDGs. Since implementation processes of the 2030 Agenda started only very recently for most countries, they were not expected to report on the review of 2030 Agenda and SDGs, but instead could focus on any activities or implementation at the country level. Country reports can be viewed here.

In terms of follow-up to the VNRs, some countries feel that there should be no follow-up to the reviews, because they are voluntary. The Secretary-General recommends that in future HLPFs, detailed recommendations for countries that presented a VNR could be included in the outcome document, and “could be used by countries having presented at the HLPF as a source of information, guidance, or support for the mobilization of resources, including for capacity building.”¹

Key Points from the SDG Progress Report

The HLPF outcome document; the 2016 SDG Progress Report, draws conclusions “through examples of disaggregated data that pinpoint where specific population groups are lagging behind.”² However, disaggregated data about women generally, and regarding women living with HIV specifically, does not often exist.

• The report broadly acknowledges, “Gender equality remains a persistent challenge for countries worldwide and the lack of such equality is a major obstacle to sustainable development.” But,
• The report fails to recognize lack of gender equality as a primary obstacle to sustainable development.
• It briefly mentions sexual violence against women and girls as one barrier to achieving the SDGs: “Survey data from 31 low-and middle-income countries suggest that the proportion of women aged between 18 and 29 who experienced sexual violence for the first time before the age of 18 varies widely, ranging from zero to 16 per cent.” However,
• Women and girls living with HIV know from our diverse experiences that these percentages are, in reality, substantially higher.
• The report remarks on inequalities in employment for women and girls as a barrier to sustainable development. But,
• It makes no mention of overwhelming structural inequities women and girls face; for example, it mentions nothing about the heavier poverty burden women and girls bear worldwide.

In its most critical oversight, the report does not mention any links between women and girls and HIV, nor does it cite women and girls living with HIV as an important population that must be engaged in order to achieve the SDGs.

Reference

1. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/9765Q and A for HLPF National reviews 2016.pdf
2. https://www.unodc.org/documents/commissions/CND_CCPCJ_joint/2030Agenda/A.70.L.60.pdf

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High Level Political Forum 2016 Statement A4 (69 KB) High Level Political Forum 2016 Statement US Letter (70 KB)

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Presentation slides used at ICW Engaging with the SDGs Webinar.

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ICW Engaging with the SDGs Webinar Presentation (1918 KB)

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This guide provides an introduction to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from the perspective of networks women living with HIV and builds on a series of workshops held by the ICW Global Office with our partner networks Namibia Women’s Health Network in Windhoek, Namibia, ICW Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS in Lviv, Ukraine and ICW Mozambique in Maputo. These workshops were designed to introduce networks of women living with HIV to the Sustainable Development Goals and to engage the networks in advocacy to ensure that the voices of women living with HIV are heard in the country-level implementation of the SDGs.

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A Guide to the Sustainable Development Goals for Networks of Women Living with HIV (1777 KB)

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In light of the 2016 High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS, the ICW Chapter for Young Women, Adolescents, and Girls (CYWAG) and the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights (WGNRR) emphasize the need to place young women and girls living with HIV at the center of all strategies and responses to ending the epidemic. In particular, the full human rights of young women and girls living with HIV must be realized, including their sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR)!

As we know, gender inequality continues to play a huge role in increasing young women and girls’ vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted infections. The current context of HIV clearly illustrates how the virus disproportionately affects young women and girls, where:

• Every minute a young woman is infected with HIV;¹
• Young women and girls make up 64% of all new infections among young people;²
• HIV is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age;³
• Less than 30% of young women and girls around the globe have correct and comprehensive knowledge on HIV.⁴

SRHR are central in promoting gender equality, ensuring comprehensive HIV treatment, and preventing new HIV infections; all key factors in achieving social justice, women’s and girls’ empowerment, and sustainable development. As such, any approach intended to fast-track the HIV and AIDS response and end related stigma and discrimination must ensure SRHR for all.

When a holistic approach to SRHR is implemented, including the provision of comprehensive sexuality education (CSE) and youth-friendly services, young people are equipped with the tools and information they need to exercise meaningful and informed decision-making power in relation to their sexual and reproductive health, thereby enabling the attainment of a whole range of other rights. Yet because of ongoing gender inequality as well as socio-cultural norms and taboos, young women and girls worldwide face considerable challenges in exercising their SRHR, particularly if they are living with HIV.

When trying to access sexual and reproductive health information and services, young women and girls living with HIV are often multiply marginalized, as a result of their age, gender, economic situation, and HIV status. As such, they are often at high risk of experiencing violations of their sexual and reproductive rights,⁵ such as discriminatory and humiliating treatment; breaches of consent and confidentiality; physical and emotional violence and abuse; and denial of services.⁶ In some cases, young women and girls living with HIV are subjected to forced or coerced sterilization and abortion⁷, amounting to cruel and inhumane treatment and torture, as recognized by international and regional human rights bodies.⁸

When the SRHR of young women and girls is unmet, their ability to manage their HIV care and overall health outcomes is impeded, thus hindering their wellbeing, as well as efforts to strengthen HIV prevention and eradicate related stigma and discrimination. As importantly, the neglect and denial of the SRHR of young women and girls living with HIV is tantamount to violating their fundamental human rights and freedoms.⁹ For as affirmed by States worldwide through the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, the human rights of women include the right for all women to “have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.”

With this in mind, when implementing HIV/AIDS related strategies and in the context of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, we urge governments to:

• Reaffirm the right of young women and girls living with HIV to choose who to love and be intimate with, as well as to choose if and when to be sexually active, free from coercion, discrimination and violence;
• Meaningfully integrate HIV and SRHR programming and services, to ensure the health, rights and wellbeing of all young women and girls in all their diversity;
• Facilitate universal access to CSE which is gender-sensitive, evidence and rights-based, and provided via a holistic and positive approach;
• Ensure universal access to youth-friendly sexual and reproductive health services, including a full range of voluntary and high-quality contraceptives, as well as access to safe, legal and affordable abortion services, free of marital and parental consent requirements;
• Take all measures to end the deplorable practice of subjecting women living with HIV to forced, coerced or uninformed sterilization;
• Ensure universal access to antiretroviral therapy, of central importance in the prevention of mother to child HIV transmission and transmission between sexual partners;
• Fully involve all key affected populations, including adolescent girls and young women living with HIV, in any and all approaches intended to fast-track HIV and AIDS responses and end related stigma and discrimination.

In light of this High-Level Meeting, we call upon governments and the international community to recognize the agency of young women living with HIV over all aspects of our bodies and our lives, and ensure our central involvement and leadership in all policies that affect our communities.

Our Bodies, Our Sexual and Reproductive Rights!

 

Reference

1. UNAIDS (2012), Every minute, a young woman is newly infected with HIV.
2. UNFPA (2012), From Childhood to Womanhood: Meeting the Sexual and Reproductive Health Needs of Adolescent Girls.
3. World Health Organization (2013), Women’s health.
4. UNAIDS (2012), Every minute, a young woman is newly infected with HIV.
5. Ibid.
6. UNDP et al (2013), Protecting the Rights of Key HIV-Affected Women and Girls in Healthcare Settings: A Legal Scan.
7. Ibid.
8. Report of the Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, A/HRC/22/53, paras. 46-48.
9. 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, para. 96.

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CYWAG WGNRR Advanced of the HLM Meeting on Ending AIDS Statement A4 (1520 KB)

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We, young women living with HIV in all our diversity, demand proper access to heath, including sexual and reproductive services, treatment and change in policies!

As we celebrate the International Day of Action for Women’s Health, we celebrate all the milestones we have made in ending the HIV epidemic and inclusion of young women to ensure that we have our voices heard and that no one is left behind.

Young women living with HIV all over the world have been working relentlessly to support our peers in empowerment and formation processes, including accepting our HIV status as something that only makes us stronger, and embracing our bodies as unique, beautiful and powerful no matter the shape or size. We recognize that we have autonomy over our sexuality, our femininity, our womanhood and every single matter regarding our wombs, and sexual and reproductive health and rights. We recognize and embrace our right to choose to disclose or not disclose to our partners, families and any other person, whenever and however we decide to.

The issue that remains a thorn in the flesh is the low accessibility to treatment cutting across all groups of young women living with HIV. We must have high quality health services, including for sexual and reproductive health and treatment that is available, accessible and affordable. These services must be evidence based, with a gender perspective, diversity conscious and youth friendly, so adolescents in transition don’t get lost in the system, reducing the number of deaths among adolescents.

We, young women in all our diversity, are calling on Governments and other key decision makers to:

1. Eliminate adverse, discriminating and unsafe laws and policies including criminalization of HIV transmission, which continue to impede HIV prevention and treatment, and haven’t impacted positively in any effect on the incidence reduction.
2. Eliminate the criminalization of key populations like young women who use drugs, young sex workers and young lesbians and men who have sex with men which put these populations in unsafe situations and endangers their lives.
3. Create more mechanisms to ensure impactful engagement and rights implementation of the commitments already taken to reform punitive legal policies and frameworks aimed at young people living with HIV.
4. Recognize that we have autonomy over our bodies, and that gender based discrimination and violence is a barrier to ending AIDS by 2030.
5. Ensure that young women’s rights, especially of those most marginalized are upheld by reducing violence against women, especially in conflict settings.
6. Recognize that sexual and reproductive health and rights encompasses abortion on demand, clear guidelines on breastfeeding for women living with HIV, freedom from forced and coerced sterilization, rights-based prevention of mother to child transmission (PMTCT) programs, as well as increased commitment and investment to ending maternal mortality.
7. Recognize that women living with HIV are not only mothers, but we are also independent human beings, who are also deserving of our full human rights including sexual and reproductive health and rights and access to treatment.

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ICW CYWAG International Day of Action For Women's Health Statement (1401 KB)

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