Female Condom is a woman's right!
Female condoms for all! at the Commission on the Status of Women
On March 1, the Danish and Brazilian governments, in conjunction with Universal Access to Female Condoms Joint Programme and the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), hosted a timely, high-level event at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) about the urgency of expanding global access to female condoms. More than ten government delegations—representing countries as diverse as Mexico, Swaziland, Morocco, Argentina, Sweden, the United States, and Denmark—and sixty NGO representatives from all regions of the world participated in the event: Female Condoms for All!
The session was opened by Carsten Staur, the Danish ambassador of the permanent mission of Denmark at the United Nations. He reconfirmed the Danish government’s strong support for the female condom, emphasizing the need for adequate programming.
The Brazilian Minister of the Special Secretariat for Policies for Women, Nilcea Freire, presented her ground-breaking vision for her country. She emphasized that women should have a choice in which condom they want to use and that there should be different kind of female condoms available. She demanded for universal access to female condoms and suggested one strategy for Brazil could be to build a female condom factory in the country.
Edinah Masiyiwa, Executive Director of theWomen’s Action Group in Zimbabwe, gave insight into why Zimbabwe has been hailed as one of the few female condom success stories.. She articulated that this success is largely attributed to the country’s adoption of the comprehensive condom programming, leadership and coordination, management of demand and supply, and advocacy from non-governmental and civil society organisations. These efforts have led to a decrease in new HIV-infections.
Finally, Adrienne Germain of the International Women’s Health Coalition (IWHC), a member of last year’s U.S. delegation to the CSW, closed the session by offering attendees strategies and concrete messages to help raise the visibility of female condoms at the CSW. Among many things, she recommended providing strong language around female condoms to be offered during negotiations on HIV and Maternal and Newborn Health resolutions to be considered at the CSW this year.
