AIDS-Free World Chairperson Allan Rosenfield, M.D. and Linda Carrier-Walker, Advisory Board Treasurer, issued a joint statement to participants at the Women Deliver global conference on maternal health in London, England appealing for urgent action to create an international agency for women.

As professionals concerned with the health of all women, and as board members of AIDS-Free World — a new advocacy organization whose name reflects our shared hope — we appeal to participants in the 2007 Women Deliver conference to join us in a critical campaign to support and accelerate the process for creating a UN agency for women.

A UN High-Level Panel determined nearly a year ago that every global goal is threatened bygender inequality, and that the world needs a well-resourced UN agency for women to subdue the threats. The decision about the creation of the agency is now with the Member States. It is our hope that delegates to this conference will join with the forces assembled to make the women’s agency a reality.

It will require the clear and coordinated voices of advocates worldwide to ensure that the General Assembly moves quickly to establish a new UN agency for women, headed by an Under Secretary-General, with adequate staff at country level and funding of $1 billion (an amount less than half of UNICEF’s budget and a quarter of UNDP’s). It will take a concerted push by advocates of women’s rights to ensure that an ideal on paper becomes a presence on the ground, protecting, supporting and improving the lives and defending the rights of women everywhere.

AIDS-Free World asks you to join us in petitioning the international community to put an end to gender-based violence and the punishing cultural practices that confine women to second-class status, to educate girls, protect sexual and reproductive health and promote the economic development of women. We call upon Member States to mobilize the resources and fulfill the repeated promises of gender equality made over time.

Nowhere is the failure to establish and defend women's rights more tragically evident than in the developing world. Ninety-nine per cent of maternal deaths occur there, and gender inequality fuels the AIDS epidemic, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, where women and girls make up nearly 60 per cent of infected adults. We must act now.

We appeal to delegates at this conference to help accelerate the process of establishing the women’s agency by lobbying their governments and representatives at the UN. It could be the last chance for countless women, and one that cannot be missed.

Download the PDF version of the statement here.

Statement by Allan Rosenfield, M.D., Chair, AIDS-Free World and  Linda Carrier-Walker, Treasurer, AIDS-Free World.

---

Bookmark this article with any of these social bookmarking sites: