Laws and Analyses

Global
HIV Criminalisation
Database

The Global HIV Criminalisation Database lists known HIV criminalisation laws by jurisdiction. It includes:

  • A brief overview of how laws have been used
  • Links to the full text of the laws, where available
  • A summary of significant advocacy related to the laws and their use

Laws have been included wherever there is a criminal penalty attached. They have been classified into types of law, particularly noting where laws are HIV-specific.

The laws within in the Global HIV Criminalisation Database grew from that contained in GNP+’s groundbreaking Global Criminalisation Scan (now incorporated into this site).  Further substantial assistance was provided by Australian law firm Hall & Wilcox, with support from our colleages at the UNAIDS secretariat in Geneva, as well as networks of advocates and civil society organisations from around the world.

All the content contained in the Database has been prepared by HJN. For the United States of America, we are grateful to the Center for HIV Law and Policy for allowing us to link to their regularly updated original research and analysis on HIV-related criminalisation in the United States, excerpted from ‘HIV Criminalization in the United States: A Sourcebook on State and Federal HIV Criminal Law and Practice’.

We are currently confirming data for a number of jurisdictions, particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa. Those data will be published shortly.

If you have information that can make the database more complete, or if you’re aware of an error, please let us know by using the contact us form.

The drop-down box below allows you to find specific countries/jurisdictions. The map allows you to see HIV criminalisation laws used according to the type of law, e.g. HIV-specific criminal law, general criminal law, communicable disease law, sexually transmitted infections law etc.

 

Global overview: Laws by type of law

How to use this map

Select a type of law in the drop-down menu and see which countries have (and use) these laws for HIV criminalisation. Click on a country on the map to get to its Laws & Analyses section of our database.