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Health
'Silence is
Complicity'
by Elayne Clift
 Noted
Canadian diplomat, AIDS activist and women's advocate Stephen Lewis will
step down from his post as United Nations Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in
Africa in December 2006. Also head of the Stephen Lewis Foundation,
which funds community-level efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in Africa, he is
an ardent advocate of social and gender justice as being the answer to
the AIDS pandemic.
Lewis was also a strong advocate for the recently announced new UN
agency for women. This agency will combine several existing UN agencies
- such as UNIFEM, the Office of the Secretary General's Advisor on Women
and Gender Issues and the Division on the Advancement of Women - and
will be headed by an Under-secretary General. It is believed that it
will have greater visibility and status than its component parts have
had.
He talks here
about why oppression of women is a "ghastly, deadly business" and how
the UN agency for women could be the ideal vehicle for change. An
interview.
Q. What
drives your burning desire for social justice and gender equality? What
formative experiences led to your career as an internationalist and
outspoken advocate for women?
A. I come from a left-wing family. We've been Social Democrats for
generations, so the basic principles of social justice have always
driven my convictions. My father was active politically in Canada and my
wife, Michele Landsberg, is an ardent feminist who wrote a column for 20
years. We always told our children they had to be feminists or they
would be disinherited! And I have two outstanding colleagues - Paula
Donovan and Anurita Bains - who like others I've worked with over the
years, share and influence my commitment to social justice and to
equality for women. Now with the AIDS pandemic and what is happening to
women as a result, I've never felt the urgency for gender equality more
sharply.
Q. You are
recognized, respected, and many would say loved, internationally for
your work on behalf of the world's women, especially those who are
bearing the burden of the HIV/AIDS crisis. Would you explain why you
feel so passionately about their plight?
A. The most vexing and intolerable dimension of the pandemic is what is
happening to women. It's the one area of HIV/AIDS that leaves me feeling
most helpless and most enraged. Gender inequality is driving the
pandemic and we will never subdue the gruesome force of AIDS until the
rights of women become paramount in the struggle. The demeaning
diminution of women is evident everywhere, particularly in the
developing world, where freedom from sexual violence, the right to
sexual autonomy, to sexual and reproductive health, social and economic
independence, and even the whiff of gender equality, are barely
approximated. It's a ghastly, deadly business - this oppression of women
in so many countries on the planet.
Q. Do you
think this new independent UN agency for women will deal more
effectively with women's needs than the UN has done historically?
A. The new agency represents an extraordinary move forward, if
implemented and funded as recommended. One must exercise the necessary
caution, but if the contents of the proposed agency come into play it
will be the most significant breakthrough for women in the entire
history of the United Nations. For the first time we have a vehicle
which can truly transform the lives of women and can make a huge
difference in saving women's lives. I'm pleased that Kofi Annan,
Secretary General of the UN, and his successor, have both indicated that
women's recommendations are very important as the agency moves forward.
Q. What are
some key elements in making it work?
A. There are three critical pieces that will determine if the new agency
will truly be a turning point. First, we must understand that women's
empowerment and equal rights are central to development and peace.
That's why the high-level panel recommended that this new entity be
"fully and ambitiously" funded. To make up for lost time and to turn the
rhetoric into reality, the agency will need an initial budget of US$ 1
billion, which is only half of UNICEF's budget last year.
Second, success hinges on the development of sharply focused operations,
high-quality, substantive technical expertise, and strong leadership at
the country and regional levels. Targeted programs based on the 12 areas
addressed in the Beijing Platform of Action are needed in every country.
Finally, the
new agency for women will need a leader with vision, expertise,
authority, empathy and devotion unparalleled in the history of
multilateralism. This Under-secretary will be part of the UN governing
body and will serve on its central executive board. She will be part of
senior administration and will, therefore, have the flexibility and
opportunity to inform governments and the UN body. A search for the
Under-secretary General to head the agency will begin before the end of
2006year and the position will begin in 2007, so there is a rapid
timeline.
Q. Where will
the funding for this agency come from?
A. Bilateral governments, major western donors and those interested in
changing the gender equation in the world will now have a focus for
mobilizing funds. The American election is a big plus too. More women in
Congress will mean more money and a much more enlightened and
sympathetic response from the US.
Q. You must
be very excited by all of this. For years, you've struggled mightily on
behalf of the world's women.
A. I'm thrilled at what's happened. I'm determined, with so many others,
to make it work. And the women who fought these battles will be
successful. This is not a hollow shell. This is real. Now we need
leadership, funds and opportunities on the ground. We'll all fight hard
for that and to create as much international support for the agency as
possible.
Q. I suspect
you have been a thorn in the side of many politicians, bureaucrats and
UN officials. Have you been censored or told to back off very often?
A. I've only been asked once by the Secretary General of the UN to curb
what I was saying. I was asked not to attack the US for its abstinence
over condoms policy in Uganda because it might upset the US president
who was scheduled to attend a meeting at the UN. In the end, he didn't
come anyway.
People often assume you have to engage in self-censorship to make an
impact. I don't agree. To me, that's a recipe for selling out. Silence
is complicity. We are talking about AIDS, gender, life and death issues
and these are non-negotiable items. People are dying. It's nonsense to
strangle what you have to say in the face of catastrophe.
Q. Your term
as Special Envoy to Africa on AIDS will come to an end in December.
What's next for you?
A. In addition to the Stephen Lewis Foundation which focuses on funding
community-level projects that help women, grandmothers, orphans and
people living with AIDS in Africa, we will be working actively for the
success of the women's agency.
Q. Who would
you like to succeed you as UN Special Envoy for AIDS in Africa?
A. I have asked that my successor be an African, but most importantly,
an African woman. All roads lead from women to social change. That
includes subduing the AIDS pandemic.
December 3,
2006
(Elayne Clift writes about
women, development and social policy from River, Vermont, USA.)
(For more information about
Stephen Lewis, visit
www.stephenlewisfoundation.org)
By arrangement with
Women's Feature Service
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Health
The Week of December 3, 2006
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Sensible Security Strategies by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Nepal: Raising Hopes of Normalcy by Col. Rahul
K. Bhonsle
Lawless and Vibrant: Criminal Union Cabinet
Ministers by V. Sundram
It is Not Women Who Declare War by Mehru Jaffer
Living Among Enemies by J. Ajithkumar
The Fate of Mankind: Is the World Heading
Towards War or Peace? by TA Ramesh
Impact of Globalization on Indian Culture
by V. Sundaram
A Rebel of Innocence by Ashwini Ahuja
Trip to Heaven by Arya Bhushan
When the Sun Sets by Dr. Manasi Dutt
Meenaxi by Dibyendu Ghosal
Rinanubandh by Julia Dutta
A Country Deluged by VK Joshi
Food for Thought by Attreyee Roy Chowdhury
Skiing in Dubai by Rajesh Talwar
That Thing Called Love by Tuhin Sinha
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
Mothers Feeling Blue by Rasana Atreya
'Silence is Complicity' by Elayne Clift
Dissent through Dance and Drama by
Deepti Priya Mehrotra
Concrete Threat to Goa's Beaches by Lionel
Messias
Imprisoned by Daylight by Swapna Majumdar
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