The annual conference of aidsfocus.ch and terre des hommes schweiz on 10 April 2014 in Berne was devoted to the topic of "Sexual Violence and HIV". According to the WHO, every third woman worldwide is exposed to physical and/or sexual violence. These attacks have a direct impact on the health of those affected and are one of the main causes of HIV infection.
Irene Bush, PSS Psychosocial Support Unit
This year's annual conference of aidsfocus.ch was held in cooperation with terre des hommes schweiz. The aim of the event was to understand the connection between sexual rights, human rights and HIV infection in order to define practical solutions for an adequate offer for victims of sexual violence.
Broad perspective
In the first part of the conference six input papers were given. The internationally active experts gave the more than 40 participants a differentiated basis for the exchange in the workshops. The exciting field reports showed on the one hand how difficult the working conditions are and on the other hand how much respect the employees of the relief organisations are held for their work.
Close exchange in the workshops
The exchange in the workshops that followed confirmed, among other things, that the work of contact point staff is personally touching, stressful and often a threat to them. It is therefore the task of every organisation to ensure that its employees are protected (e.g. from attacks by the perpetrators) and are given space to address and deal with their psychological stress.
On this aidsfocus.ch website you will find the PDFs for download
Link to the picture gallery on flickr.com
Here you can find the press release of aidsfocus.ch on the conference
Here you will find our live coverage on Twitter (see 10 April)
The speakers were:
