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Resource | Publications,
In its General Recommendation 19 the CEDAW Committee states, that the definition of discrimination against women includes gender–based violence, that is "violence that is disproportionately directed against a woman because she is a woman or that affects women disproportionately. It includes acts that inflict physical, mental or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty. Gender-based violence may breach specific provisions of the Convention, regardless of whether those provisions expressly mention violence".
These research papers - International Standards on Domestic Violence Legislation and Overview of Global Good Practices on Domestic Violence Response Systems prepared by the Lawyers Collective Women's Rights Initiative, India, and contained in this publication, contribute strongly to the enhancement of domestic legislation in the ASEAN region. Drawing on international standards and good practice globally, they not only provide a rich analysis of existing legislation, but a robust framework to enhance the gender responsiveness of legislation and its implementation.
Resource | Publications,
Pacific youth are central to the HIV response in the region. As of 2007, 4,103 new cases of HIV were reported in the region. The majority of these cases were people between the ages of 15 and 29. Even though the number of reported HIV cases is relatively low, other indicators of risk and vulnerability such as STIs are high among youth aged 15 to 24.
Whilst education on sexual health including HIV has improved over the past 10 years, getting young people to recognise their risks for HIV and STI infection and to adopt safe behaviour remains a challenge.
The development of the 2009 Pacific Youth Festival Safe Festival campaign primarily stemmed from lessons learned during the 1st Pacific Youth Festival–Safe Festival Campaign, which resulted in the following recommendations:
• Involvement of the target group at all stages of the campaign – planning, development, implementation, monitoring and evaluation
• Use of the peer to peer approach to disseminate information and products and provide
services and support
• Development of BCC materials that participants wear or use
• Distribution of both male and female condoms
Resource | Publications,
This book offers an original perspective on HIV and AIDS as a development issue in South Asia, a region with a heterogeneous epidemic and estimated national HIV prevalence rates of up to 0.5 percent. The analysis challenges the common perception of HIV and AIDS, which has been shaped to a large extent by analysis of HIV and AIDS in regions with much higher prevalence rates. Three risks to development are associated with HIV and AIDS in the region: First, the risk of escalation of concentrated epidemics. Second, the economic welfare costs. Third, the fiscal costs of scaling up treatment.
Resource | Publications,
In Asia, HIV prevalence among women and girls is increasing; 40% of HIV-positive young people in south and south-east Asia are women and girls. According to UNESCO, over one million youth between the ages of 15 to 24 in south Asia are infected with HIV, and more than half (62%) are young women. In Cambodia, half of all new infections occur in married women and another one third occurs via vertical transmission from mother to child; since 2006 more women than men in Cambodia are reported to have AIDS. Many women diagnosed as HIV-positive are mothers and it is important to keep them healthy in order to have optimal health and well being outcomes for themselves and their children.
This research study aims to examine the challenges that these increasing numbers of HIV positive
women and children face in getting access to antiretroviral drugs (ARVs) and HIV services in Asia. The study was designed and conducted by women living with HIV in six Asian countries. It was carried out throughout 2008, under the direction of the women’s working group of the Asia Pacific Network of people living with HIV (APN+).
Resource | Publications,
Across the Pacific region, youth population between 10-25 years of age represents about 56% of the pacific population of 9.5 million, with 37% under the age of 14 years. The region's median age is 21 years. UNICEF, UNFPA and SPC jointly supports 10 countries across the Pacific to deliver programs targeting the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people. A 2007 Review of the Adolescent Health and Development (AHD) Program recommended specifically targeting vulnerable, marginalised and most at risk groups of young people. It also noted that specific interventions for this group were inadequate. As a result, the AHD Program is reviewing its strategies to assess the extent to which the MARYP approach has been used, with a view to strengthening program results and outcomes.
The purpose of the assignment, as stated in the Terms of Reference, was to collect information to identify the context, groups and location of Most at Risk Young People in the Pacific and determine the extent to which specific interventions have been implemented to reach this group of young people.
Resource | Publications,
Since the first case of AIDS was reported from Thailand, a quarter of a century ago, the epidemic in the South-East Asia Region has grown massively. Today, HIV has been reported from 10 of 11 countries in the Region. Nearly 3.5 million people are currently living with HIV/AIDS in the Region, and the epidemic is still evolving.
HIV policies and programmes should be based on evidence and firmly rooted in the science of epidemiology. This annual report on “HIV/AIDS in the South-East Asia Region 2009”, presents the current epidemiological situation as well as recent progress in universal access to HIV prevention, care and treatment, based on data reported by Member countries of the Region.
The report highlights that HIV continues to disproportionately affect marginalized populations. Transmission of HIV is fueled by risky sexual and injecting practices and high rates of sexually transmitted infections.While remarkable progress has been made in assuring safe blood transfusion services, expanding testing and counselling facilities and to some extent in scaling-up antiretroviral treatment programmes, there are many shortfalls that need urgent attention.
Resource | Publications,
The Pacific is a unique and vulnerable region. It spans a third of the world’s surface and accounts for just 0.14% of the world’s population—with a similar proportion of the global burden of HIV. For Pacific countries, even a small number of people living with HIV can translate into high incidence and prevalence rates that can have devastating impacts on individuals, families, communities and economies. These challenges demand greater global attention. Pacific countries are often included in broad Asia–Pacific regional groupings where the magnitude of the problem in Asian countries overshadows the challenges and needs of smaller Pacific countries.
Even the more-developed countries of the region are not immune to significant challenges to human development, compounded in recent times by the global financial crisis. These Pacific realities led to the constitution of the Commission on AIDS in the Pacific in October 2007 to examine the current scale of the HIV epidemic in the region. The Commission also examined how the Pacific’s response has changed over the past decade and how this momentum can be strengthened.
Resource | Publications,
The Asia Pacific Forum on Women, Law and Development (APWLD) has been facilitating consultations with the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women, its causes and consequences (UNSRVAW) since 1995, following the inception of the UNSRVAW mandate and appointment of the first Rapporteur in 1994.
The theme of the 2009 consultation was 'Violations of Women's Sexual and Reproductive Rights'. Fifty four women, and one man, from twenty one countries in Asia Pacific came together to affirm women’s sexual and reproductive rights as fundamental human rights. In doing so they claimed women's autonomy to make decisions on issues concerning their own bodies and sexuality.
Resource | Publications,
A regional discussion on HIV transmission in intimate partner relationships was initiated by UNAIDS through a regional meeting on Women and HIV in Cambodia in July 2006. Subsequently, UNAIDS convened a satellite session at the 8th International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific at Colombo in August 2007, and some countries started to work on desk reviews. Following the recommendations of the Commission on AIDS in Asia (2008), the ASEAN Foundation, UNAIDS, UNIFEM and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) together initiated the development of the evidence base on HIV transmission in intimate partner relationships in Asia through collaboration between researchers, regional networks of people living with HIV (the International Commission on Women and the Asia Pacific Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS) and the United Nations (UN).
In July 2008 a regional coordination committee consisting of UN (United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), UNDP, UNIFEM, UNAIDS), networks of people living with HIV and the ASEAN Foundation was formed to oversee the process. UNAIDS, UNIFEM and UNDP provided technical and budget assistance to countries to carry out desk reviews and focus group discussions. A technical meeting in November 2008 that included the Coalition of Asia Pacific Regional Networks on HIV/AIDS (the Seven Sisters) provided space to review data trends and gaps from the country studies, refine the methodologies and develop a regional network for information exchange.
Resource | Publications,
As the world witnesses a sharp increase in the number of women living with HIV, women leaders like
those telling their stories in this publication need to be heard. Coming from different socio-economic and personal contexts in the Asia Pacific region, these women speak of the power dynamic in their relationship with men, weighted in favour of the latter. They speak of discrimination and violence that they endure, rendering them vulnerable to HIV – a lack of information about HIV, a lack of knowledge about a partner’s HIV status, an inability to negotiate sex or safe sex, because they fear violence. They speak about the stigma and discrimination they face and the burden of secrecy that weighs down on them (and women do face disproportionate discrimination when compared to men), unaffordable healthcare services and the burden of care-giving responsibilities.
Emerging from the shock of testing HIV positive and the implications this has for their lives and relationships, transcending the trauma of stigma and discrimination - these women demonstrate remarkable courage in breaking the culture of silence enveloping their HIV status. They show intense resilience in picking up the pieces of their lives and deciding to LIVE, and in inspiring other HIV positive women with similar concerns, to LIVE.