HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day goes global!

Next Wednesday 28th February is HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day.

For the first time, HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day – which began two years ago in the United States – has gone global! This year’s theme is: “You care about ending HIV criminalisation – you just don’t know it yet!”

That’s why we’ll be producing a very special episode of our webshow, HIV Justice Live! on this important new date for global HIV decriminalisation activism, where I’ll be joined on my ‘virtual sofa’ by an inspiring group of community-based expert activists – Florence Riako Anam (GNP+); HIV and human rights consultant, Michaela Clayton; Mikhail Golichenko (HIV Legal Network); and Andy Tapia and Kerry Thomas (SERO Project) – to explain why HIV criminalisation impacts us all, and what you can do about it.

We’ll be streaming live to YouTube and Facebook, so you’ll be able to interact with us during our Q&A session. By March 1st, Zero Discrimination Day, the show will also be available on our YouTube channel where it will be subtitled in English, allowing for automatic translation into any language.

HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day was the brainchild of our long-time HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE partner, the SERO Project’s co-Executive Director, Kamaria Laffrey. HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day was launched two years ago in collaboration with the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, community activists and public policy organisations across the United States and grown in size and prominence ever since.

HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day takes place on 28th February for several reasons. It’s a date that bridges two major US awareness months – Black History Month in February and Women’s History Month in March. And it’s also a symbolic nod to the legacy of the late Hollywood icon and early AIDS activist, Elizabeth Taylor, who was born on 27th February.

HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day is an opportunity to amplify the voices of those who have been criminalised based on their HIV status; to remind people of the negative impacts of HIV criminalisation on health and rights; to celebrate the work of many individuals who are part of the growing global movement to end HIV criminalisation; and to recognise that there’s still much to do to achieve HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE.

You can find out what other events are taking place on and around HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day by visiting a dedicated Facebook page or by following the hashtag #HINACDay.

US: Updated CDC guidelines on Molecular HIV Surveillance do not go far enough, believe HIV advocates

CDC updates privacy guidelines for HIV sample tracking

Guidelines relating to a controversial practice used by American state and local health departments to curb HIV infections were updated last week by the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention – but have not gone far enough, believe some experts.

The guidelines track the genetic signatures of viruses collected from people newly diagnosed with HIV, and the updated policy encourages health officials to be more transparent about the process, one of many changes sought by HIV advocacy organisations concerned about how so-called molecular surveillance could violate patients’ privacy and civil rights.

The New York Times reports that the agency stopped short of adopting more significant changes some had been pushing for, like allowing health agencies to opt out in states where people can be prosecuted for transmitting HIV.

“We’re in a period where health data are increasingly used in criminal prosecutions, as seen in prosecutions of people seeking abortion care or who might have miscarried,” said Carmel Shachar, a professor at Harvard Law School who specialises in healthcare. The revised policy did not go far enough, she said, to protect people with HIV.

Dr Alexandra Oster, who leads the CDC’s molecular surveillance team, said the benefits of the programme far exceed the risks. “We need to do it well,” she said. “But we need to keep doing it.”

HIV has a distinctive genetic signature in each person that helps doctors decide which drugs are likely to thwart it. But the information can also be used to track its spread through a population – including identifying clusters of people who carry closely-related viruses.

The CDC has, for decades, used molecular surveillance to track flu, salmonella and, more recently, Covid.
In 2018, it began requiring health departments that received federal funding for HIV programmes to share such data gleaned from people with the virus. Patients do not have to be informed that their viral samples are tracked.

Molecular surveillance has identified more than 500 HIV clusters in the country since 2016, the CDC said.

Health officials can then interview people in the clusters to identify their sexual or drug-use partners and connect them to testing, needle exchanges and medications that block transmission.

But many HIV activists have long argued that such tracking could violate people’s rights and discourage testing and treatment.

Before the information is reported to the CDC, health departments strip it of information that could readily identify the patient. But personal data are held by state and local health departments.

In some states, people have been prosecuted for transmitting HIV or for not telling their partners that they carry it. No criminal prosecution in the United States has been known to involve molecular surveillance data, but activists remain wary of the possibility.

They also fear that advances in technology might eventually be able to determine who infected a specific person.

In October, 110 HIV and human-rights groups sent a letter to the CDC expressing “serious concerns” that molecular surveillance was carried out without the informed consent of people with HIV.

The CDC said that it had a meeting with the activist coalitions’ representatives last year and incorporated their input in the revised policy.

A similar conflict arose in the late 1990s, when the CDC pushed for states to collect names of diagnosed people in state-run databases, which the agency said would help combat a disease that by then had killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. But many activists protested the policy, delaying its rollout for a decade.

Since 2008, all states have collected the names of people diagnosed with HIV.

The CDC said the information is secure, and that it knew of only one names-related data breach – in Florida in 1996. It said it knew of no such privacy violations related to molecular surveillance data.

The new policy did not allow waivers for opting out of molecular surveillance in places where such data could be used in criminal proceedings, a change that had been recommended by the National Alliance of State and Territorial Aids Directors, a non-profit representing public health officers.

Representatives from more than 40 state or county health departments that the federal government prioritises for HIV prevention told The New York Times that the molecular surveillance policy had been generally useful in their efforts to prevent transmission. None knew of any data breaches.

IAS 2023: Five-year impact of Expert Consensus Statement – poster published today

Today, 24th July, at the 12th IAS Conference on HIV Science on Brisbane, we presented our research findings on the five-year impact of the ‘Expert Consensus Statement on the Science of HIV in the Context of Criminal Law’.

Click on the image above to download the pdf of the poster

Tomorrow, 25th July, we will publish the full research report and discuss the findings on our live webshow, HIV Justice Live!

Hosted by HJN’s Executive Director, Edwin J Bernard, the show will include a discussion with the report’s lead author, HJN’s Senior Policy Analyst Alison Symington, as well as interviews with Malawian judge Zione Ntaba, Taiwan activist Fletcher Chui, and SALC lawyer Tambudzai Gonese-Manjonjo on the Statement’s impact.

We’ll also hear from some of the Expert Consensus Statement’s authors, including Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Salim S Abdool Karim, Linda-Gail Bekker, Chris Beyrer, Adeeba Kamarulzaman, Benjamin Young, and Peter Godfrey-Faussett.

Ugandan lawyer and HJN Supervisory Board member Immaculate Owomugisha will also be joining us live from the IAS 2023 conference where she is serving as a rapporteur, to discuss the Statement’s relevance today.

HIV Justice Live! Episode 5: Bringing Science to Justice will be live on Facebook and YouTube on Tuesday 25th July at 3pm CEST (click here for your local time).

US: Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) issues resolution on Molecular HIV Surveillance and Cluster Detection

PACHA Unanimously Approves Resolution to Create Safeguards for People Living with HIV

PACHA UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES RESOLUTION TO CREATE SAFEGUARDS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV

Directs CDC to Adapt Surveillance Activities to Better Protect Human Rights for Vulnerable Communities

October 18, 2022PWN commends and applauds the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) for their leadership in unanimously passing an historic resolution that is critical to protecting the human rights and dignity of people living with HIV, the Resolution on Molecular HIV Surveillance and Cluster Detection Response.

This resolution responds to concerns raised by public health officials and community advocates, especially networks of people living with HIV and human rights and data privacy experts, and urges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change their guidance on cluster detection and response (CDR) activities. Specifically, the resolution clearly and forcefully recommends that the CDC direct jurisdictions funded for such activities adapt their implementation of CDR to account for local conditions, including health data privacy protections and laws criminalizing people living with HIV.

“Basically, PACHA told the CDC that local context matters: if jurisdictions do not have adequate safeguards to protect the human rights and privacy of people living with HIV, the CDC must allow for a moratorium on CDR activities,” said Kelly Flannery, policy director at Positive Women’s Network-USA. “There is still room to create more robust protections for people living with HIV, such as informed consent standards. Going forward, we must ensure that there are no further developments and integration of new public health surveillance technologies impacting people living with HIV absent community input, oversight, and specifically involvement from networks of PLHIV.”

In the resolution, PACHA also urged CDC to work in partnership with networks of people living with HIV to create a stronger system of informed consent around the use of molecular HIV surveillance data. U.S.-based networks of PLHIV have been sounding the alarm about molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) since 2018, when the federal government first required that states and jurisdictions scale up the use of molecular surveillance technologies and activities as a condition of HIV prevention funding. By 2019, MHS was named one of the core pillars of the federal “End the HIV Epidemic” (EHE) Plan.

“As a result of massive mobilization and outcry by networks of people living with HIV and our allies, yesterday, we finally saw a response addressing community concerns,” said Venita Ray, co-executive director of Positive Women’s Network-USA. “Now it’s time for the CDC to take swift action to implement the recommendations from PACHA and networks of PLHIV.”

This resolution is a tremendous step forward for communities that are dually most impacted by HIV and by surveillance and policing – especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color, migrants, queer and transgender people, people who use drugs, those who work in in the sex trade, and those with the least access to quality, affordable healthcare. We are deeply appreciative to PACHA leadership and to the PACHA Stigma and Disparities Subcommittee for their tremendous efforts in response to concerns from networks of people living with HIV.

Now that it has now been unanimously approved by PACHA, what happens next will speak to the character and integrity of the CDC. Failing to implement these recommendations would represent an egregious breach of public trust. We will be closely monitoring the adoption of these important recommendations throughout the federal response.

The full PACHA resolution is available here.

Why people living with HIV should not be criminalised for donating blood

Preventing the transmission of blood-borne infection by imposing limitations on the donation of blood is an important and legitimate public health objective.

Since the beginning of the HIV epidemic, certain groups – including, but not limited to, gay men and other men who have sex with men – have been subjected to restrictions on their ability to give blood.

Sustained advocacy by gay rights organisations in many high-income countries has focused on the discriminatory nature of these so-called ‘gay blood bans’, highlighting significant advances in blood screening capabilities. This has led to a general softening of restrictions on blood donations for gay men in many of these countries – allowing donations with ‘deferral periods’, or allowing donations based on individual risk assessments.

However, this advocacy has generally not translated into the removal of HIV-specific criminal laws for donating blood, nor has there been a call for a moratorium on singling out people living with HIV for donating blood using non-HIV-specific general criminal laws – even though many of the same public health and human rights arguments apply to both the so-called ‘gay blood bans’ and to HIV criminalisation more generally.

That is why today, the HIV Justice Network has published Bad Blood: Criminalisation of Blood Donations by People Living with HIV. The report was written by Elliot Hatt and edited by Edwin J Bernard, based on research undertaken by Sylvie Beaumont, with additional input provided by Sarai Chisala-Tempelhoff and Paul Kidd (HIV Justice Network’s Supervisory Board); Sean Strub (Sero Project) and Robert James (University of Sussex).

We found that 37 jurisdictions in 22 countries maintain laws that criminalise people with HIV for donating blood. Notably, 15 jurisdictions in the United States (US) have laws which specifically criminalise blood donations by people living with HIV, while four US states – California, Illinois, Iowa, and Virginia – have repealed laws which previously criminalised this conduct.

Although prosecutions are relatively rare, we are aware of at least 20 cases relating to blood donation since 1987. Half of these cases have been reported in Singapore, including two as recently as 2021.

We argue that the criminalisation of blood donations by people with HIV is a disproportionate measure – even if the aim of protecting public health through the prevention of transfusion-transmitted infection is legitimate – and is the result of both HIV-related stigma and homophobia. It is not supported by science.

There is no good reason for any country or jurisdiction to have HIV-specific criminal laws – whether they focus on blood donation or on sexual exposure or transmission. HIV-specific criminal laws are discriminatory and stigmatising, especially since people with other serious blood borne infections – including hepatitis B and C and syphilis – are not singled out with specific laws, nor for prosecution under general criminal laws.

Blood donation criminal laws focused on HIV should be repealed, prosecutions based on general laws should end, and instead science-informed measures – such as individual donor risk assessments and universal blood screening – should be relied on to protect the public against transfusion-transmitted infection.

Read the report at: https://www.hivjustice.net/publication/badblood

US: Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) publishes statement opposing HIV criminalisation

DREDF HIV Criminalization Statement

Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund (DREDF) opposes the criminalization of people based on their HIV-positive status. In addition to being harmful to public health, laws and prosecution targeting HIV-positive people constitute discrimination on the basis of disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)[1] prohibits disability discrimination by state and local governments.[2] State laws and prosecutions that criminalize people living with HIV without a basis in current objective medical and scientific knowledge violate the ADA and other antidiscrimination mandates. We urge lawmakers across the country to modernize their HIV laws and policies, and to discard outdated and harmful punitive approaches.

Background

During the outset of the HIV epidemic, many states enacted laws that criminalized or enhanced the criminal penalties for certain acts by people living with HIV that were thought to create the risk of exposure to HIV.[3] These laws were passed at a time when fear and misinformation about HIV was widespread, particularly about how HIV is transmitted. Today, with the benefit of more than 30 years of research and considerable advances in medical treatments, the scientific and medical communities have learned much more about how HIV is transmitted and how to prevent transmission. We now know that HIV is not spread through saliva, tears, or sweat.[4] We also know that the use of condoms, PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis), and antiviral medication, by themselves or in combination, can dramatically reduce the risk of HIV transmission, in some cases to zero.[5] HIV has also become a medical condition that is managed with medications and other treatments, with people with HIV now having a life expectancy that matches that of the general public.[6] Yet most HIV criminal laws do not reflect current scientific and medical knowledge.[7] In addition, HIV criminalization laws undermine public health by discouraging people from seeking testing and treatment options, such as antiviral medication, that can protect their health and reduce transmission.[8]

Outdated HIV criminalization laws constitute disability discrimination because they treat people living with HIV more harshly without an objective scientific basis. Several states, such as California, Missouri, and North Carolina, have taken steps in recent years to modernize their state HIV laws.[9] Unfortunately, many state laws have still not been updated to reflect current scientific and medical knowledge. Laws in several states criminalize acts that cannot transmit HIV, such as spitting,[10] or that pose no material risk of transmission.[11] These laws do not account for actions that reduce risk, such as condom usage or PrEP or whether transmission has actually occurred.[12]
People with disabilities, including people living with HIV, deserve to live lives free from discrimination and irrational prejudice. DREDF opposes outdated laws that single out people for criminal penalties or enhanced criminal penalties based on their HIV-positive status. These laws violate the ADA and undermine public health.  They should be repealed.


[1] 42 U.S.C. § 12131 et seq.

[2] 42 U.S.C. § 12132.

[3] See J. Kelly Strader, Criminalization as a Policy Response to a Public Health Crisis, 27 J. Marshall L. Rev. 435 (1994); Wendy E. Permet, AIDS and Quarantine: The Revival of an Archaic Doctrine, 14 Hofstra L. Rev. 53 (1985-1986).

[4] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ways HIV is Not Transmitted, (April 21, 2021) available at https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-transmission/not-transmitted.html (“[HIV] is not transmitted […] Through saliva, tears, or sweat”).

[5] Robert W. Eisinger, Carl W. Dieffenbach, Anthony S. Fauci, HIV Viral Load and Transmissibility of HIV Infection: Undetectable Equals Untransmittable, Journal of the American Medical Association (2019), available at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/2720997; National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, The Science Is Clear—With HIV, Undetectable Equals Untransmittable: NIH Officials Discuss Scientific Evidence and Principles Underlying the U=U Concept, (Jan. 10 2019), available at https://www.niaid.nih.gov/news-events/science-clear-hiv-undetectable-equals-untransmittable (“In recent years, an overwhelming body of clinical evidence has firmly established the HIV Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U) concept as scientifically sound, say officials from the National Institutes of Health. U=U means that people living with HIV who achieve and maintain an undetectable viral load—the amount of HIV in the blood—by taking and adhering to antiretroviral therapy (ART) as prescribed cannot sexually transmit the virus to others.”); Alison J. Rodger, Valentina Cambiano, Tina Bruun, et al., Sexual Activity Without Condoms and Risk of HIV Transmission in Serodifferent Couples When the HIV-Positive Partner Is Using Suppressive Antiretroviral Therapy, JAMA. 2016;316(2):171-181. doi:10.1001/jama.2016.5148 (2016), available at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2533066;  Roger Chou, Christopher Evans, Adam Hoverman, et al., Preexposure Prophylaxis for the Prevention of HIV Infection: Evidence Report and Systematic Review for the US Preventive Services Task Force, JAMA (2019), available at https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2735508; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, PrEP Effectiveness (May 13, 2021), available at  https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/prep/prep-effectiveness.html (“PrEP reduces the risk of getting HIV from sex by about 99% when taken as prescribed.”).

[6] Hasina Samji, et al., Closing the Gap: Increases in Life Expectancy among Treated HIV-Positive Individuals in the United States and Canada (December 18, 2013), PLOS ONE, available at https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0081355.

[7] Division of HIV Prevention, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV Criminalization and Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S., available at https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/law/criminalization-ehe.html (“After more than 30 years of HIV research and significant biomedical advancements to treat and prevent HIV, most HIV criminalization laws do not reflect current scientific and medical evidence.”).

[8] Division of HIV Prevention, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV Criminalization and Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S., available at https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/law/criminalization-ehe.html (“[HIV criminalization] laws have not increased disclosure and may discourage HIV testing, increase stigma against people with HIV, and exacerbate disparities.”); J. Stan Lehman et al., Prevalence and Public Health Implications of State Laws that Criminalize Potential HIV Exposure in the United States, AIDS Behav. 2014; 18(6): 997–1006., available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4019819/.

[9] Division of HIV Prevention, National Center for HIV, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, HIV and STD Criminalization Laws, available at https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/policies/law/states/exposure.html.

[10] See, e.g., MISS. CODE ANN. § 97-27-14(2); Ind. Code §§ 35-42-2-1, 35-45-16-2(c), 35-50-3-3; OHIO REV. CODE ANN. §§ 2921.38, 2929.14.; 18 PA. CONS. STAT. ANN. § 2703.

[11] See ALA. CODE § 22-11A-21; ARK. CODE ANN. § 5-14-123; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ways HIV Can Be Transmitted, (April 21, 2021) available at https://www.cdc.gov/hiv/basics/hiv-transmission/ways-people-get-hiv.html (“[t]here is little to no risk of getting HIV” from oral sex); Julie Fox, Peter J. White, Jonathan Weber, et al., Quantifying Sexual Exposure to HIV Within an HIV-Serodiscordant Relationship: Development of an Algorithm, AIDS 2011, 25:1065–1082 at 1077 (2011).

[12] J. Stan Lehman et al., Prevalence and Public Health Implications of State Laws that Criminalize Potential HIV Exposure in the United States, AIDS Behav. 2014; 18(6): 997–1006., available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4019819/.

Belarus: Eurasian Women’s AIDS Network submits list of issues on the implementation of CEDAW as it relates to women living with HIV

List of Issues on the implementation of the CEDAW by the Republic of Belarus  as it relates to women living with HIV submitted for the consideration at the 83rd Pre-Sessional Working Group of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women – Geneva, Switzerland, 28 February – 4 March 2022

Prepared by the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS

  1. The Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS brings together activists and women-led organizations from 12 countries of Eastern Europe and Central Asia to improve access to healthcare services for women living with HIV and vulnerable to HIV, to protect them from violence, and provide inclusive involvement of them in public debate, on which their lives and health depend.
  2. This submission focuses on the following issues – harmful effects of the legally enshrined criminal prosecution of women living with HIV (criminalization of HIV exposure, non-disclosure and transmission), ministerial and inter-agency practices that exacerbate the situation of women living with HIV, women who use drugs, diagnosis disclosure, violence against women.

The full submission is available for download in English and in Russian from the UN Treaty Body Database.

 

 

Russia: Laws that restrict migrants with HIV and deny them medical care increases the burden on the health care system

Legal barriers to migrants with HIV are not working

Automated translation via Deepl.com. For original article in Russian, please scroll down.

Laws that restrict the stay of foreign nationals with HIV, as well as the denial of free medical care, may be one of the causes of a hidden epidemic, writes the EECA Regional Platform.

The Regional Expert Group on Migrant Health conducted research in two EECA countries, Armenia and Uzbekistan. The aim was to identify the legal barriers to HIV faced by citizens of the countries who have returned from migration.

Challenges for migrants with HIV

Social isolation and stigmatization, lack of permanent relationships, language barriers, unstable material resources, and limited access to health care services are the main challenges faced by labour migrants with HIV.

Inability to obtain a legal patent because of HIV infection leads to administrative offences:

  • Among migrants: illegal labour activities, commercial sex services
    Among the citizens of host countries: illegal sale of patents and HIV certificates etc.

The problem with getting ARV treatment leads to resistance and a general deterioration of the health of migrants living with HIV. This ultimately increases the burden on the health care system: patients’ opportunistic infections need to be intensified, ART regimens need to be changed, etc. Moreover, returning migrants contribute to the spread of HIV in their home countries.

Currently, the Russian Federation, which receives the largest number of migrants from the EECA region, is one of 19 countries that restrict the stay of foreign nationals with HIV. People living with HIV entering Russia specify visiting relatives, tourism/travel or medical treatment as the purpose, rather than employment.

At the end of 2021, a law came into force in the Russian Federation which requires foreign nationals to be tested for HIV, banned substances and dangerous infectious diseases every 3 months. But foreign business associations, as well as the media, have reacted quite sharply to the Russian law. The business community sent a letter to the Russian Government asking it to simplify the rules and not to subject highly qualified specialists to testing.


Законодательные барьеры для мигрантов с ВИЧ не работают

Законы, которые ограничивают пребывание в стране иностранных граждан с ВИЧ, а также отказ в бесплатной медицинской помощи, могут быть одной из причин скрытой эпидемии, пишет Региональная Платформа ВЕЦА.

Региональная экспертная группа по здоровью мигрантов провела исследование в двух странах ВЕЦА — Армении и Узбекистане. Целью было определить правовые барьеры в связи с ВИЧ, с которыми сталкиваются граждане стран, вернувшиеся из миграции.

Проблемы мигрантов с ВИЧ

Социальная изоляция и стигматизация, отсутствие постоянных отношений, языковой барьер, нестабильный материальный уровень, ограниченный доступ к медицинским услугам — основные проблемы, с которыми сталкиваются трудовые мигранты с ВИЧ.

Невозможность получения легального патента из-за наличия ВИЧ-инфекции ведет к административным правонарушениям:

  • среди мигрантов: незаконная трудовая деятельность, коммерческие секс-услуги;
    среди граждан принимающей страны: нелегальная продажа патентов и сертификатов об отсутствии ВИЧ-инфекции и т.д.

Проблема с получением АРВ-терапии приводит к резистентности и общему ухудшению здоровья мигрантов, живущих с ВИЧ. Это в конечном итоге повышает нагрузку на систему здравоохранения: необходимо усиливать лечение оппортунистических инфекций пациентов, менять схему АРВТ и т.д. Более того, вернувшиеся домой мигранты способствуют распространению ВИЧ в своих странах.

В настоящее время Российская Федерация, принимающая наибольшее количество мигрантов из региона ВЕЦА, является одной из 19 стран, которые ограничивают пребывание иностранных граждан с ВИЧ. Люди, живущие с ВИЧ, въезжая в Россию, указывают в качестве цели не трудоустройство, а посещение родственников, туризм/путешествие или лечение.

В конце 2021 года в РФ вступил в силу закон, согласно которому иностранные граждане обязаны каждые 3 месяца сдавать анализ на ВИЧ, запрещенные вещества и опасные инфекционные заболевания. Но зарубежные бизнес-ассоциации, а также СМИ достаточно остро отреагировали на российский закон. Бизнес-сообщество направило письмо в Правительство РФ с просьбой упростить правила и не подвергать проверке высококвалифицированных специалистов.

Molecular HIV Surveillance “a perfect storm” in the context of HIV-related criminalisation

A new briefing paper published today by Positive Women’s Network-USA on behalf of the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition aims to support people living with HIV, activists, legal experts, and human rights campaigners in understanding the complexities and consequences of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS). 

Molecular HIV Surveillance: A global review of human rights implicationsprovides a detailed explanation of what MHS is and how it is used across the globe, including how the technology works, where it is being conducted, and by whom. The paper describes growing human rights concerns relating to the use of this technology and goes on to list a number of recommendations for the use of MHS which were gathered from an international literature review and from members of the Expert Advisory Group.*

Molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) is an umbrella term that describes a wide range of practices focused on the monitoring of HIV variants and the differences and similarities between them for scientific research, public health surveillance, and intervention.

To conduct MHS, scientists rely on the results of HIV genetic sequencing tests taken from people living with HIV – these tests are often done before prescribing HIV medication to determine if the individual has a strain of HIV that is resistant to certain treatments. Interest in, and use of, MHS for reasons other than tailoring treatment regimens is increasing globally, however. Of particular concern, in some regions, MHS is being conducted and HIV data is being shared in ways that put the rights and safety of people living with HIV in jeopardy. 

“HIV is highly stigmatised and communities that are most vulnerable to acquiring HIV are already highly policed and at risk for violence” said Naina Khanna, co-executive director of Positive Women’s Network-USA, a US-based membership organisation led by women and people of transgender experience living with HIV. “In more than 30 states in the US alone, and over 100 countries around the world, people with HIV can be criminalised on the basis of their health condition. Taking this kind of data from people without their consent or knowledge and storing or sharing it without adequate protections is extremely risky and could come at the cost of someone’s personal safety, their livelihood, and in the case of HIV criminalisation, their freedom.”

The paper highlights how HIV experts and advocates have raised a range of human rights concerns about this technology. These include: 

  • Consent and autonomy; 
  • Lack of community consultation; 
  • Increased stigma on targeted communities; 
  • Privacy and data protections; 
  • Whether or not the technology can be used to “prove” direct transmission; and,
  •  How MHS may intensify HIV criminalisation within communities who are already marginalised and oppressed.

Edwin J Bernard, Executive Director of the HIV Justice Network and global co-ordinator of the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition added: “MHS treats people living with HIV as ‘clusters’ and targets of public health interventions, rather than the beneficiaries of public health. When you combine MHS with HIV criminalisation it’s a perfect storm. That’s why I commissioned PWN-USA to produce this briefing paper as a first step to understand the problems and to suggest a range of possible solutions. With increased knowledge on the practices of MHS, individuals and organisations can be better equipped to advocate for ending research and surveillance practices that have the potential to harm the rights, autonomy, and well-being of people living with HIV.”

The paper provides wide-ranging recommendations for change aimed at various stakeholders, highlighting five key areas of action:

  1.   Take seriously and act upon community concerns about MHS.
  2.   Respect the bodily autonomy and integrity of people living with HIV in all our diversity.
  3.   MHS implementers must demonstrate a clear public health benefit that outweighs the potential harms of MHS, including by ensuring protections (i.e., data privacy, legal protections, social harms prevention, etc). These demonstrated benefits of MHS must measurably include people living with HIV.
  4.   Providers ordering HIV sequencing must inform people living with HIV about how their blood and data are being used for MHS purposes and be allowed to withdraw the consent if they so wish, without fear of negative consequences to their HIV treatment and care.
  5.   Implementers of MHS should publicly advocate against punitive or coercive laws and policies aimed at people living with HIV and ensure that MHS is never used in criminal, civil, or immigration investigations or prosecutions.

The paper is now available in four languages:

Watch the launch video below:

Follow the online conversation on Twitter by using the hashtags #EndMHS #DataPrivacy #DataProtection #HIVJustice and by following @HIVJusticeNet @uspwn

We gratefully acknowledge the financial contribution of the Robert Carr Fund to this report.

*MHS Expert Advisory Group

  • Naina Khanna & Breanna Diaz, Positive Women’s Network-USA
  • Edwin J. Bernard, HIV Justice Network
  • Marco Castro-Bojorquez, HIV Racial Justice Now (in memoriam)
  • Brian Minalga, Legacy Project
  • Andrew Spieldenner, US People Living with HIV Caucus
  • Sean Strub, Sero Project