UN Women

In July 2010, the United Nations General Assembly created UN Women, the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women. UN Women stands behind women’s equal participation in all aspects of life, focusing on five priority areas: increasing women’s leadership and participation; ending violence against women; engaging women in all aspects of peace and security processes; enhancing women’s economic empowerment; and making gender equality central to national development planning and budgeting. UN Women also coordinates and promotes the UN system’s work in advancing gender equality.

UN Women brings gender equality and human rights perspectives to its work on women and AIDS, spearheading strategies that make clear links to underlying factors such as violence against women, feminized poverty and women’s limited voice in decision-making. UN Women has contributed to integrating gender aspects into the plans and policies developed by national AIDS councils in more than 35 countries and regional programmes.

With an emphasis on reducing discrimination and addressing the challenges that stem from unequal power relations between women and men, UN Women highlights the contributions and priorities of women living with or affected by AIDS. UN Women’s central strategy for dealing with the AIDS epidemic is to empower women and to guarantee their rights—so that women can protect themselves from HIV infection, overcome stigma, and gain greater access to treatment and care.

UN Women also provides technical support to enhance the leadership and participation of women living with HIV in decision-making, and works to safeguard their rights to services, inheritance and property. UN Women brings gender equality and human rights perspectives to its programmatic work on AIDS.