scholarly journals Safeguarding women’s and girls’ wellbeing: Exploring the role of gender-based violence on HIV transmission in Zimbabwe

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Munyaradzi Mapingure ◽  
Zindoga Mukandavire ◽  
Innocent Chingombe ◽  
Rouzeh Eghtessadi ◽  
Diego F. Cuadros ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Hiv Status ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Mapping Techniques ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Using Data

Abstract Background Gender-based violence (GBV) is a growing epidemic, whose role in HIV transmissions remains minimally addressed by the majority of national HIV response interventions. Methods Statistical and geo-spatial analysis was used to explore the relationship between GBV variables and HIV status using data from Zimbabwe Demographic and Health Survey, 2015-16. Results Women who were ever humiliated by their husbands or partners were 1.45 times more likely to be HIV positive than those who were never humiliated, p = 0.002. The same was true for women whose husbands or partners ever threatened to harm them or someone they love, OR (95%CI) 1.33 (1.04–1.68), p = 0.022. There was a positive association between HIV status and women who reported that their husband or partner, either pushed, shook, or threw something at them or punched them with his fist or with something that could hurt them or kicked, dragged or beat them, or tried to choke or burn them on purpose or threatened or attacked them with a knife or gun, or any other weapon. Women who experienced forced sexual violence with threats were more likely (odds 1.61, p = 0.019), to be HIV positive than those women who did not experience the same. Using geospatial mapping techniques our study has shown a substantial countrywide epidemic of GBV against women in Zimbabwe requiring urgent attention. Emotional GBV had a similar geographical distribution with HIV in the northern part of the country, where all three types of violence tend to aggregate. Conclusion There is a significant association between forms of GBV (emotional, physical, and sexual) and HIV status. The results suggest the need to strengthen interventions that empower women and girls with skills to withstand violence in order to curb HIV transmission. The engagement of men as proponents of gender equality, bringing other men to account for perpetuating GBV and actively countering violence against women and girls, is critical to the design of such interventions.

Role of Climate Change in Exacerbating Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Women: A New Challenge for International Law

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Bharat H. Desai ◽  
Moumita Mandal
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Law ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Political Security ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The advent of climate change era has been affirmed by various global processes including 21 May 2019 recognition by the Anthropocene Working Group of ‘human impact’ in bringing profound alterations on planet earth. It has emerged as the predominant ‘world problematique’. Though entire populations are affected by climate change, women and girls suffer the most. Due to their traditional roles, women are heavily dependent on natural resources. As already seen, as a consequence of natural disasters and during Covid-19 pandemic in 2020-21, women have faced heightened real-life challenges specially being vulnerable to different forms of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). They suffer from a lack of protection, privacy, and mental trauma. Women are exposed to SGBV due to weak or absence of social, economic, political security and the culture of widespread impunity to the perpetrators. There is double victimization of women both as human beings and because of their gender. Effect of SGBV is highly injurious and perpetual. A close study of four main areas of international law does not yield any international legal instrument that deals with SGBV against women during and after the climate change induced disasters. This is more ominous when growing evidence suggests role of climate change in exacerbation of SGBV against women and girls. Even texts of the three specific climate change treaties (1992 UNFCCC, 1997 Kyoto Protocol and 2005 Paris Agreement) do not address this issue. It has been given attention only through the decisions of the Conference of the Parties in recent years. Due to serious psychological and bodily harm SGBV causes to women, it needs to be explicitly factored in respective international legal instruments on climate change and disasters. Amidst ignorance, denials and lack of adequate attention as regards impact of climate change in exacerbating SGBV against women and girls from the scholars and decision-makers in the field, this study makes a modest effort to deduce and analyze –from scattered initiatives, scholarly literature in different areas, existing international legal instruments and intergovernmental processes –the growing causal relationship between climate change and SGBV against women and girls so as to suggest a way out for our better common future. It is a new challenge to international law that needs to be duly addressed in a timely manner.

scholarly journals Law, criminalisation and HIV in the world: have countries that criminalise achieved more or less successful pandemic response?

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (8) ◽  
pp. e006315
Author(s):  
Matthew M Kavanagh ◽  
Schadrac C Agbla ◽  
Marissa Joy ◽  
Kashish Aneja ◽  
Mara Pillinger ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Viral Suppression ◽  
Hiv Transmission ◽  
People Living With Hiv ◽  
Hiv Status ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Hiv Virus ◽  
The World ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Living With Hiv

How do choices in criminal law and rights protections affect disease-fighting efforts? This long-standing question facing governments around the world is acute in the context of pandemics like HIV and COVID-19. The Global AIDS Strategy of the last 5 years sought to prevent mortality and HIV transmission in part through ensuring people living with HIV (PLHIV) knew their HIV status and could suppress the HIV virus through antiretroviral treatment. This article presents a cross-national ecological analysis of the relative success of national AIDS responses under this strategy, where laws were characterised by more or less criminalisation and with varying rights protections. In countries where same-sex sexual acts were criminalised, the portion of PLHIV who knew their HIV status was 11% lower and viral suppression levels 8% lower. Sex work criminalisation was associated with 10% lower knowledge of status and 6% lower viral suppression. Drug use criminalisation was associated with 14% lower levels of both. Criminalising all three of these areas was associated with approximately 18%–24% worse outcomes. Meanwhile, national laws on non-discrimination, independent human rights institutions and gender-based violence were associated with significantly higher knowledge of HIV status and higher viral suppression among PLHIV. Since most countries did not achieve 2020 HIV goals, this ecological evidence suggests that law reform may be an important tool in speeding momentum to halt the pandemic.

Tackling gender based violence in university communities: a practitioner perspective

2018 ◽  
pp. 211-228
Author(s):  
Ellie Hutchinson
Keyword(s):  
Violence Against Women ◽  
Education Programme ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Prevention Education ◽  
University Communities ◽  
Causes Of Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
The Uk

This chapter describes an approach, dubbed Get Savi (Students Against Violence Initiative), for tackling gender based violence (GBV) in university communities. Get Savi was developed and delivered in Scotland between 2012 and 2015. The chapter first provides an overview of the broader policy and political context in which the Get Savi programme was developed, with particular emphasis on the importance of a political consensus around the causes of violence against women and girls (VAWG). It then examines the practical process underlying the development of the Get Savi programme, along with the role of partnerships in the development and in the re-imagining of the prevention education programme for a Scottish audience. Finally, it considers some of the ongoing challenges and draws together learnings from the project to make recommendations for future policies and programmes on prevention education for student communities in the UK and beyond.

scholarly journals The role of Circle women in curbing violence against women and girls in Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Owusu-Ansah
Keyword(s):  
West Africa ◽  
Violence Against Women ◽  
African Women ◽  
Background Information ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Impact

The article looks at the role Circle of Concerned African Women Theologians (the Circle) have played in the struggle to end or reduce the rate at which violence against women and girls occurs in West Africa by highlighting the contributions of older Circle women, especially the initiator of the Circle, Mercy Amba Oduyoye. The initiator of the Circle and other older Circle women have left a remarkable legacy that needs to continue by the current and future generations of the Circle. The background information examines the leadership and mentorship of Mercy Amba Oduyoye and the impact she has made in the lives of African women. The essay then looks at the types of violence that women face in West Africa with the specific contributions of Circle women in the struggle to end violence against women and girls. It then argues that Circle women have played very significant roles both in setting the pace and giving the platform for women activities to minimise gender-based violence against women and girls. Circle women have written and presented papers that have addressed many challenges including HIV and/or AIDS, Girl Child trafficking, Marriage of Minors, and almost all kinds of violence against women and girls. Currently, religious violence threatens the fabric of African nations causing insecurity and panic, women and girls being the most vulnerable. The challenge to the present and future Circle members is to contribute in significant ways towards religious harmony in Africa and beyond. The Circle acknowledges the leadership role of women and encourages them to spearhead the liberation of women as well as empower them to be able to aspire to get to the top or become independent. No one understands what someone else feels better than the person experiencing the ordeal. Women can better understand what they go through and also have the passion to strive towards liberation.Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: In this article, the discipline of practical theology combines with elements of social science and Gender Studies, bringing out the Circle�s contribution towards the eradication of religious and cultural and gender violence against women and girls in Ghana and Africa.Keywords: Circle; Theology; gender-based violence; Mercy Amba Oduyoye; West Africa

CEO and CFO Equity Incentives and the Pricing of Audit Services

2013 ◽  
Vol 33 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-25 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Anthony Billings ◽  
Xinghua Gao ◽  
Yonghong Jia
Keyword(s):  
Positive Association ◽  
Audit Fees ◽  
Internal Controls ◽  
Audit Risk ◽  
Pricing Decisions ◽  
Equity Incentives ◽  
Accounting Scandals ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Distinctive Role

SUMMARY: The alleged perverse role of managerial incentives in accounting scandals, and the distinctive role of auditors in identifying and intervening in attempted earnings manipulation, highlight the importance of explicitly considering executive incentive plans by auditors in the auditing process. By empirically testing auditors' responses to CEO/CFO equity incentives in planning and pricing decisions using data from 2002 through 2009, we document compelling evidence that CFO equity incentives are positively associated with audit fees and CEO equity incentives are not statistically related to audit fees, suggesting that auditors perceive heightened audit risk associated with CFO equity incentives. Our further analyses reveal that the positive association between CFO equity incentives and audit fees is more pronounced in firms with weak internal controls, indicating heightened risk associated with CFO equity incentives in this setting perceived by auditors. JEL Classifications: G30, G34, M42, M52.

Gender-Based Violence Among HIV-Positive Women in Kazakhstan: Prevalence, Types, and Associated Risk and Protective Factors

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (13) ◽  
pp. 1570-1590 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tina Jiwatram-Negrón ◽  
Nabila El-Bassel ◽  
Sholpan Primbetova ◽  
Assel Terlikbayeva
Keyword(s):  
Protective Factors ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Risk And Protective Factors ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Hiv Positive Women ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
Partner Gender

This article examines the prevalence and associated multilevel risk and protective factors of intimate and nonintimate partner violence among a sample of 249 HIV-positive women in Kazakhstan. We found high prevalence of both lifetime intimate partner violence (52%) and nonintimate partner violence (30%). Together, nearly 60% experienced at least one incident of violence by either an intimate or nonintimate partner (gender-based violence [GBV]). In the multivariate analyses, we found associations between several individual, interpersonal, and socio-structural risk factors and GBV. Findings provide direction for practice, policy, and future research to address the intersection of GBV and HIV in Kazakhstan.

scholarly journals Opinion Review of Socioeconomic Impact of COVID-2019 on Women's Health

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
Author(s):  
Victory U. Salami ◽  
Stanley I. R. Okoduwa ◽  
Aimee O. Chris ◽  
Susannah I. Ayilara ◽  
Ugochi J. Okoduwa
Keyword(s):  
Health Care ◽  
Women’S Health ◽  
Women's Health ◽  
Health Care Professionals ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Maternal Complications ◽  
Health Crisis ◽  
Clinical Procedures ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based

The global battle to survive the onslaughts of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) started in December 2019 and continues today. Women and girls have borne the brunt of the hardship resulting from the health crises. This paper examined the effects of COVID-19 on women. Socioeconomic factors resulting from the pandemic, especially in relation to women's health, were discussed after studying published articles. They include gender specificity and COVID-19, the economic toll of COVID-19 on women, pregnancy and COVID-19, gender-based violence due to COVID-19, and health-care impacts of COVID-19. Making up the majority in the healthcare workforce, women were at higher risk of infection with COVID-19 due to their exposure as caregivers to infected patients. The pandemic took its toll on them as part of the greater population in the informal sector of the economy due to the lockdown directive, as many experienced severe monetary shortages and job losses. Pregnant women infected with COVID-19 were prone to severe diseases, maternal complications, and death due to their weakened immunity and exposure during clinical procedures. Gender-based violence was observed to have increased across the globe for women. The results of this review strongly indicate that women are disproportionately affected by the ongoing COVID-19 health crisis. This review will help health-care professionals and policymakers arrive at properly-thought-through decisions to better manage health crises. Governments and all key players should address the challenge by devising effective policies with a gendered view.

scholarly journals A Feminist Future for the Pacific

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Cliffe
Keyword(s):  
Sexual And Gender Minorities ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Left Behind ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Marginalised Groups ◽  
Essential Services ◽  
Women And Girls ◽  
Gender Based ◽  
And Gender

The COVID–19 pandemic continues to devastate the lives and wellbeing of millions of people around the world; women and girls, people with disabilities, youth, older people, and sexual and gender minorities are most at risk of ‘being left behind’. While confirmed cases of COVID–19 are low in the Pacific compared with other regions, the threat of the virus remains and the wider social and economic impacts are already evident. Pacific Island countries grappling with pervasive inequality, sustainable development challenges and climate change now must consider their response to the COVID–19 pandemic. This paper envisions an inclusive and transformative feminist response focused on four key outcomes: preserving access to healthcare and essential services; promoting women’s economic empowerment; protecting women and girls from gender–based violence; and supporting vulnerable and marginalised groups to express their voice and claim their rights amid the pandemic.

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