UN Women Allowed to Join UNAIDS

By Wendy Wright | June 12, 2012

When UN Women reached its one year anniversary last year, it was met with a scathing review in The Nation. Long-time UN advocate Barbara Crossette detailed the travails of the new UN agency. Internal issues, such as employee in-fighting, plagued UN Women, as well as external. Backers felt governments and UN higher-ups lacked respect for the women’s agency.

Paula Donovan of AIDS-Free World voiced this discontent.  “I think the problem is the lack of support for a new agency from within the United Nations,” she told the magazine.

“Just one example is that UN Women is not yet one of the official co-sponsoring agencies of UNAIDS,” Donovan said. “That’s preposterous.”

But no longer. UN Women proudly sent a press release last week announcing it has been allowed to join UNAIDS as a co-sponsor.

It notes that “Gender equality and respect for women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights, especially for women living with HIV, are essential for an effective response to HIV.”

Abortion advocates have actively sought to link abortion and family planning services with HIV/AIDS work in order to tap into the massive funding flowing to treat, prevent and advocate on the disease.

Last year, UN Women openly promoted abortion in the agency’s first published report, which focused on “Access to Justice.”

It remains to be seen what UN Women can contribute that the myriad and multitude of agencies, organizations, charities, governments and healthcare providers are already doing to address AIDS.

 

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