Alba, a 38-year-old with HIV since 2003 and mother of 4 boys who do not have HIV, stands with 2 of her sons inside the Integral Attention Center of Escuela hospital in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
MELBOURNE (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - HIV-positive women in Central America are being pressured to undergo sterilisation by prejudiced health workers and misled about the risk of the virus being transmitted to their unborn children, a study showed.
A survey of 285 women living with HIV in El Salvador, Honduras, Mexico and Nicaragua found that 23 percent of them had faced pressure from doctors and nurses to be sterilised.
The rate ranged from 20 percent in Nicaragua to 28 percent in Mexico, according to research by the Mesoamerican Coalition for the Reproductive Rights of Women with HIV and the Women and Health Initiative of Harvard School of Public Health.
The consistency of the rate over a large geographical area pointed to a "systematic pattern" of pressure and coercion, said Harvard School of Public Health research fellow Tamil Kendall.
By Hibaaq Osman, Founder of Karama
Women activists from across the world gathered in New York City to mark the anniversary of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325. This agreement is one of the cornerstones of the international women's rights movement and was rightly described as a landmark when it was passed. But in choosing to celebrate, are we wasting valuable energy when there is so much work still left to do?
Since 2000, Resolution 1325 has formed the basis for how women's rights and needs are taken into account in countries affected by conflict. Drawing on previous standards and contemporary discussions, 1325 has set the discourse and practice on this issue. It highlights the central role that women need to play in "the prevention and resolution of conflicts, peace negotiations, peace-building, peacekeeping [and] humanitarian response."
As crucial as 1325 has been in forcing governments to consider the needs and rights of women on conflict, now is not a time that I wish to look back and celebrate. How many conflicts have there been since 2000? How many women have suffered as a result of these conflicts?
The fifty-ninth session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place at United Nations Headquarters in New York from 9 to 20 March 2015. Representatives of Member States , UN entities, and ECOSOC-accredited non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from all regions of the world attend the session.
Themes
The main focus of the session will be on the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, including current challenges that affect its implementation and the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of women. The Commission will undertake a review of progress made in the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 20 years after its adoption at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995. The review (Beijing+20) will also include the outcomes of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly, the first five-year assessment conducted after the adoption of the Platform for Action, which highlighted further actions and initiatives.
The session will also address opportunities for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women in the post-2015 development agenda.
At any given time, an estimated 2.4 million people are trapped in modern-day slavery - human trafficking. Women, children and men across the globe find themselves being enslaved in forced labour and domestic servitude, sexually exploited or used as child soldiers. A global enterprise worth in the region of US$ 32 billion, human trafficking affects nearly ever country in the world and has become a major concern. It is a crime that shames us all.
Sadly, indications point toward most trafficked persons as never being formally identified - a cruel twist which denies them assistance when they most critically need it. In a bid to provide help and support to those most affected, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has launched the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund for Victims of Human Trafficking.
The UN Refugee Agency, with endorsement from high-profile supporters, has launched a global campaign aimed at ending the devastating legal limbo of statelessness, which affects millions of people around the world.
The refugee agency also released a "Special Report on Statelessness," which highlights the human impact of the phenomenon, and a 10-point Global Action Plan to End Statelessness. This aims both to resolve major existing crises and to ensure no child is born stateless in the future.
Global Action Plan to End 2014-24 Statelessness
Gender discrimination in nationality laws
UNHCR background note on gender equality, nationality laws & statelessness 2014
Извор: WUNRN – 04.11.2014
