UNAIDS stresses gender equality for effective response

At a workshop, the UN officials on Monday said gender inequality must be addressed for effective HIV/AIDS response.

Such response should allow people at risk including women and girls equal access to services and treatment within communities and are treated equally before the law.

They said efforts to expand gender equality in national AIDS responses must be based on “a human rights approach”, including the elimination of stigma and discrimination which are high in countries like Bangladesh.

UN Women Country Representative Christine Hunter said “inequality permeates through many social and economic layers of society, which disadvantages women in a myriad of ways”.

And in such case, she said, “women do not have the right to control what happens to their own body, including who they have sex with and when”.

“According to the law marital rape does not exist, yet we know this is not the case,” she said.

On the opening day of the three-day workshop, the participants included different stakeholders including government officials, civil society representatives, NGOs, and key affected population groups.

They discussed gender equality, gender norms, stigma and discrimination and how it affects not only women and girls, but also men and boys.

The experts and the affected also talked about key affected populations such as men who have sex with men, female sex workers, injecting drug users, and transgender (hijra).

They also pointed out at emerging populations who are at risk of contracting HIV such as vulnerable young people and wives of returning migrants.

Line Director of the National AIDS/STD Program (NASP) Md Abdul Waheed said the government believed “gender issues must be a core consideration of the HIV response”.

He said this assessment process would “assist us to identify, and carry forward, areas where the response to HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh can be strengthened with respect to gender”.

UNAIDS Country Coordinator in Bangladesh Leo Kenny said the HIV/AIDS “response cannot be myopic in its view and address gender only in HIV, because gender is a priority in all areas”.

“The way we look at gender and HIV must be transformative,” he said, “transformative means that we must change, we must do things differently”.

The key findings of the workshop will be incorporated into the review of the National Strategic Plan, scheduled for early next year, and the Concept Note which Bangladesh will submit to The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria under the new funding model.

The workshop jointly organised by the government and the UNAIDS will end on Wednesday.