Global AIDS Alliance (Washington, DC)
11 October 2006
press release
Washington, DC — The reports released this week challenge the world to take action to stop violence. The fight against AIDS will utterly fail unless we address violence against women and children. It will be impossible to reach the goals that have been set, by 2010, regarding HIV/AIDS unless we much more effectively address violence, in part because of the severe impact of violence on the ability to negotiate safe sex, to get tested for HIV, and to seek and receive treatment. The report on violence against children makes clear that the cycle of violence that begins when children are exposed to violence, either by witnessing or experiencing it.
Women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights are frequently controlled by governments and by male relatives or community members. This is a manifestation of the power dynamics that perpetuate violence against women, and the response requires action by individuals, civil society, and governments.
We need an effort to stop violence that has the same level of political leadership and visibility as the fight against AIDS. We need a comparable level of vision, of resources, of seriousness, of global coordination and planning. We need to think in billions of dollars to address violence, not millions.
The response to date has been grossly inadequate, as this week’s reports suggest. It is appalling for instance that the UNIFEM Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women must reject 97% of the requests for funding that it receives due to lack of funds. The report rightly points to some governments that have made improvements in their laws, made training in how to respond to violence mandatory, established better services, etc. For the first time the UN has clearly signaled that what has been done so far has been far from adequate and, for the first time, it lays out a comprehensive agenda while tackling some difficult and sensitive issues.
However, this week’s reports will gather dust on the shelf unless the incoming UN Secretary General is fully committed to carrying on this work and lending this issue high level political leadership. He must convene a high level task force to see that this work is implemented and challenge member states and others – including the US and other donor governments and funding instruments like the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria-- to take real action at a much greater scale. The United Nations General Assembly has received a proposal for a new UN Women’s Agency; should this agency become reality, it should immediately take on the task of coordinating such a task force.
Some shortcomings of the report on Violence against Women:
--The report fails to specifically task any UN agency or recognized group of experts with coming up with a global estimate of resource needs on this issue. The report does clearly and forcefully call for more resources, but it stops short of mandating any agency with providing such an estimate. Poor countries need help in carrying out judicial reform, providing specialized training, and providing better services and an estimate of this need is essential. Money is not the only solution, but the lack of resources for many of the positive interventions cited in the report must be fully addressed.
--The report fails to make sufficient mention of the linkages to HIV/AIDS, and in particular to the goals agreed to by the General Assembly regarding access to treatment and other services. The report could have made a stronger case by making this clear, especially by explaining the importance of addressing violence to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals on AIDS and Education. It could also have called on major programs addressing HIV/AIDS, such as PEPFAR, programs of the UK Department for International Development, the Global Fund, and others, to ensure that their programs fully address the issue of violence. The report could have urged these funders to specifically tracking spending on violence programs and by requiring that all recipients of AIDS funding train their staff in how to respond to violence.
Implications for US policy:
The US government needs to be held to its promises on this issue. It is not just the responsibility of the UN to rally the world on this. Violence is an issue that goes beyond partisan politics; now, the question is whether US leadership is being fully exercised to address the violence epidemic.
The Global AIDS Alliance (GAA) has issued a 50-page report, entitled Zero Tolerance: Stop the Violence against Women and Children, Stop HIV/AIDS, which presents a comprehensive set of policy recommendations. In Zero Tolerance, GAA highlighted some disturbing shortcomings in US policy, as well as in the global response, showing that the issue of violence is still not being taken seriously enough by decision-makers:
--The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) will fail unless the dimension of violence is fully addressed. To his credit, in 2005 President Bush announced an initiative to support legal and judicial reforms to address violence against women in four African countries. But, this initiative has been moving at a snail's pace. No programs that are part of the initiative have been implemented on the ground since it was announced over a year ago. In addition, while PEPFAR claims significant spending and activities related to violence, there is a notable lack of transparency about these activities.
--Because of inadequate resources, the world's only Trust Fund for programs to address violence (the UNIFEM Trust Fund in Support of Actions to Eliminate Violence against Women) is forced to reject 97% of funding requests. The Trust Fund faces a resource gap of at least $14 million each year. The United States should greatly increase its contribution to the UNIFEM Trust Fund. The US should be contributing at least $3 million per year.
--In total, GAA estimates the world should be spending at least $2 billion annually on proven multi-sectoral anti-violence initiatives that include changing cultural norms, prosecuting offenders, and providing micro-enterprise opportunities for women.
--The Congress and the Bush Administration now have an important opportunity to ensure US policy helps marshal a global response to the epidemic of violence that truly addresses the problem and its root causes.
--To learn more, read the Zero Tolerance report on our website: http://www.globalaidsalliance.org/GAA_Violence_Against_Women_Advocacy_Brief.cfm.
Read an interview about the UN report with GAA’s Communications Director:
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610110940.html
Response to the Study on Violence against Children, October 11, 2006
The Preliminary Report of the Secretary-General’s Study on Violence against Children is perhaps the first of its kind to address the severity and pervasiveness of violence against children around the world. As with violence against women, violence against children is a reflection of societal norms that devalue children.
The report uses a holistic lens to explore the tragic extent of violence against children and to recommend urgent, fully-funded responses. It gives a timeline for national and regional implementation—national planning processes should be in place by 2007 and legal reform and establishment of reliable data collection systems by 2009.
The report makes the urgency of the issue clear:
Violence against children is widely accepted as normal around the world, and at least 106 countries still allow physical punishment in schools.
--147 countries have not banned the punishment of children in other care settings and that up to 275 million children witness domestic violence annually.
--World Health Organization data estimated that in 2002 some 150 million girls and 73 million boys were subjected to forced sexual intercourse and other forms of violence involving touch, while 53,000 were killed.
--International Labor Organization data showed that in 2004 there were 218 million child laborers of whom126 million did hazardous work.
--WHO estimates up to 140 million women and girls have undergone genital mutilation.
The report makes a number of critically important recommendations:
--A UN interagency group on violence against children should be formed, including civil society organizations and children, along with UN personnel, to follow-up on the recommendations of this study. In addition, the General Assembly should appoint a special rapporteur on violence against children.
--Legal reform is an essential element of protecting children from violence at the hands of their family members, teachers, classmates, employers, and other members of their communities, including during conflict and post-conflict periods. Monitoring of the implementation and enforcement of these laws is a responsibility of all national governments.
--Training should be provided for everyone who works with children—teachers, health care workers, corrections officers, and others—to ensure their ability to recognize and respond to violence against children in all settings at by a range of perpetrators.
--It is important to recognize the cycle of violence that begins when children are exposed to violence, either by witnessing or experiencing it. Adequate psycho-social treatment can help break the cycle, preventing another generation of abusive adults.
Shortcomings of the report:
--The report did not discuss sufficiently the intersection of violence against children and HIV/AIDS. Children who are exposed to violence are more likely to turn to behaviors risky for HIV, such as alcohol and drug use, and to perpetrate or experience violence of a variety of kinds in adulthood.
--The report could have said more about the health sector as an important entry point for many children into the public system. If health care workers are not able to respond to violence against children and the resulting HIV/AIDS risk, an important opportunity to address these twin epidemics will be missed. The UN and national and donor governments must commit to reform of the health sector so that health care workers can get children the help they need.
--As with violence against women, a comprehensive response to violence against children is both urgent and costly. In order to protect all our children, international agencies, donors, and national governments should commit funding specifically to violence against children. Yet, the report does not specifically recommend that a global resource needs estimate be developed.
Implications for US policy:
Violence affecting schoolchildren is pervasive in some locations. One study, from Malawi, found that 50% of school-aged girls had been sexually assaulted by teachers or male classmates. Children who experience violence are more likely to engage in behaviors known to be risk factors for HIV later in life.
--Schools must be safe places for both boys and girls, but in many countries girls lack access to even such basics as separate bathroom facilities. The US Agency for International Development has a Safe Schools Program for three countries in Africa plus Jamaica, but the program has moved very slowly, and after three years it is only operating in two countries, Ghana and Malawi, and at a small scale.
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