Winnie Byanyima’s message monitored on UN News:
https://youtu.be/c0jqN-EW3gY
Time for change:
Discrimination against women and girls occurs in many different forms, across the world. These include laws that limit women’s sexual and reproductive rights, criminalize people for their gender identity or sexual orientation, or for transmitting HIV.UNAIDS has outlined several societal changes that need to take place, to end discrimination and help in the fight against AIDS.These include ensuring equal participation of women in political life, upholding human rights for women, and guaranteeing them economic justice, which involves ending the ongoing gender pay gap.
Violence against women must end, and laws that protect women from violence must be put in place and respected, with policies to support and protect survivors of violence.
This is personal:
Ms. Byanyima, who has lost family members to AIDS, said that it can only be beaten if the international community takes on social and economic injustices faced by women and girls, and spurs scientific innovation to help those living with the disease.
Winnie Byanyima, Executive Director of UNAIDS.
“Both my own family experience, and our collective experience at the United Nations, have highlighted the same key lesson: the struggle to beat AIDS is inseparable from the struggle for women’s rights and from the struggle against all forms of discrimination”.AIDS is the biggest killer of women aged 15-49. For UNAIDS, gender-based violence, inequality and insecurity must end, and women and girls must have equal access to education, health and employment, if AIDS is to be beaten by 2030.In addition, society must be transformed so that there are no second-class citizens, and everyone’s human rights are respected, said the UNAIDS chief.
“AIDS cannot be beaten while marginalized communities live in fear of the state or of socially sanctioned violence and abuse”, said Ms. Byanyima.(UN News)