News

Are you:
*A sex worker, former prisoner, or former/active drug user living with HIV/AIDS, or a young womyn within any of these communities who is living with HIV/AIDS? Criminalised and stigmatised for who you are/ what you do?
 
*Working with women and/or young women living with HIV/AIDS, or other communities living with HIV/AIDS supporting their calls and self-directed initiatives for respect of their reproductive rights?
 
*Experiencing/campaigning for access to generic medicines and public, universal, affordable health care with communities living with HIV /AIDS, so that their/your health-including reproductive health- rights will be respected?
 
*Concerned about the respect of the reproductive rights of women and young women living with HIV/AIDS (including your own rights and those of colleagues, friends or family members living with HIV/AIDS)?

Share your experiences with the Women’s Global Network for Reproductive Rights.

Worldwide, the reproductive rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, continue to be denied and violated, including by policy makers and legislative bodies, and other authorities as well as health service providers and community members. Commonly reported reproductive rights violations of women living with HIV/AIDS- and especially those who identify as youth and/or members of other marginalised populations include: forced and/or coerced sterilisation and abortion, coercive birth control counselling, sexual violence, criminalisation, stigmatisation and an overall denial of the right to bodily autonomy.

During the April 2011 session of the Commission on Population and Development at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, WGNRR will endorse a civil society session** that will focus on the reproductive rights of women living with HIV/AIDS, as well as an activity raising the lack of attention to the women's human rights expressed in MDG 5. We are aware that the UN buildings are a place where few community-based sexual and reproductive rights defenders will have the opportunity to enter. Nevertheless, your concerns, strategies for change, recommendations and passion for a future when everyone’s reproductive rights are upheld should not be ignored by the policy makers and authorities in these halls!

WGNRR is calling on all generations of women living with HIV/AIDS to share your experiences by sending us written testimonials, audio clips and video recordings about

-reproductive rights violations;

-the barriers and challenges faced in order to have reproductive rights respected and upheld;

-concrete actions and steps that need to be taken - locally, nationally and/or internationally - to ensure the reproductive rights of women living with HIV will be upheld; and

 -successful community support/mobilisation initiatives.

Expressions by collective groups or individuals, including recordings of spoken word poetry, songs, dance and group discussions, are welcome. Although not every submission will be included in the session, each contribution will be part of shaping the discussion.

WGNRR cannot provide any related funding resources, nor can we fund individuals or organisational representatives to attend the meetings in New York.  We also are unable to authorise UN passes. Your participation in this testimonial gathering initiative is therefore on a strictly voluntary basis.

BY FRIDAY MARCH 11TH, please send WGNRR the written testimonials (maximum 1000 words), still images, or audio recordings (mp3, .wav format, maximum 10 minutes) or videos (quicktime.mov, windows.avi, or .mpg format, maximum 10 minutes) that you would like to be heard at the UN in New York.  Submissions should be sent to tanya@wgnrr.org , with the subject heading “Speak Out: Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights”. Questions can also be directed to tanya@wgnrr.org.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

[**Note: The CPD side session is jointly endorsed by FEIM, GESTOS, Global Coalition of Women and AIDS, ICW Global, and WGNRR. Other endorsing networks are welcome to join. ]

Source: http://www.wgnrr.org