In 2025, HIV criminalisation remained a persistent, global human rights and public health failure – visible both in the rise in reported prosecutions and in the continued mismatch between HIV science and legal practice. Despite significant law reform momentum in several jurisdictions, we found evidence of unjust arrests, charges, and convictions reported in 27 countries. However, while the number of reported HIV criminalisation cases increased in 2025, this rise was driven largely by intensified enforcement and reporting in a limited number of countries, rather than a widening of criminalisation across new jurisdictions.
Rising case numbers concentrated in fewer countries
Our Global HIV Criminalisation Database included 112 reported cases between January 1st and December 31st, 2025. This represents the highest annual total recorded in the database in recent years – almost double the number documented in 2024, and more than twice the annual totals seen between 2021 and 2023.
A defining feature of 2025 was how strongly case reports clustered in specific countries. However, unless cases are systematically reported either in official, public-facing court databases, relying on media and/or civil society reported cases means we are only seeing the most visible portion of a much larger reality.
Nevertheless, one country – Uzbekistan – accounted for more than half of all reported cases. This is partly because Uzbek courts publish all HIV criminalisation cases online, but mainly due to an exceptionally broad and punitive legal framework combined with extensive mandatory HIV testing. Article 113 of the Criminal Code criminalises mere awareness of HIV status, with no distinction between exposure and transmission and no defences for condoms, viral suppression, or informed consent, creating a very low threshold for prosecution. Mandatory testing laws targeting key populations and returning migrants further increase detection without any link to alleged criminal conduct, resulting in more people being identified and prosecuted than anywhere else.
Alongside this, Russia and the United States continue to feature prominently in HIV criminalisation case reports, with the United Kingdom, France, South Korea and Canada represented by at least two reported cases in 2025.
Same harms, familiar forms
Across the 2025 cases list, several recurring patterns stood out:
- Non-disclosure and “exposure” prosecutions remained the default legal response, with multiple non-disclosure prosecutions in the United States proceeding without allegations of transmission, and exposure-only cases continuing in Russia despite no demonstrated risk of harm.
- Criminal cases disproportionately arose from contact between law enforcement and marginalised people – including gay men, sex workers, trans people, and people already in detention – illustrating how HIV criminalisation disproportionately arises in contexts shaped by stigma, surveillance, and law enforcement contact with marginalised communities.
- Criminalisation extended beyond sexual contexts, with no-risk conduct framed as intentional harm, including spitting prosecutions in Canada and the United States, and prosecutions linked to needle or blood incidents in the United Kingdom and Brazil.
- Cross-border consequences persisted even after legal “wins”, illustrated by Ireland’s deportation of a man whose conviction had been overturned by the Supreme Court, and by the persistent risk of immigration and residency consequences in Canada and the United States, where HIV-related prosecutions can have lasting effects beyond the criminal process itself.
- Legacy criminalisation continued to create procedural chaos, as seen in Zimbabwe where prosecutions and litigation persisted despite the HIV criminalisation law having previously been repealed, and in countries such as Russia where outdated HIV-specific provisions continue to be applied alongside general criminal law, producing inconsistent charging practices.
Legal reform: progress alongside persistent risk
Despite a challenging political environment, 2025 saw several concrete legal and policy developments that signalled continued momentum toward reform, particularly at the sub-national level.
In the United States, state-level action remained the primary driver of change. In Maryland, the governor signed legislation repealing the state’s HIV-specific criminal statute, removing a law long criticised for its incompatibility with current scientific evidence. North Dakota also enacted legislation addressing outdated HIV criminalisation provisions, narrowing their scope and reducing the reach of HIV-specific penalties.
In Mexico, reform efforts continued across multiple jurisdictions. Baja California eliminated “danger of contagion” language from its criminal code, and advocacy to repeal or amend similar provisions continued in other states, alongside renewed engagement at the federal level.
In Ukraine, parliament approved the first reading of legislation to remove HIV criminalisation from the Criminal Code. While the law reform process has stalled in the context of ongoing conflict, the move towards repeal represents a significant legislative step and an important signal of political commitment under difficult circumstances.
Alongside these gains, 2025 also highlighted the fragility of reform and the persistence of resistance in several settings.
In Canada, frustration grew over the continued absence of comprehensive federal reform of HIV non-disclosure criminalisation. Despite longstanding commitments and extensive advocacy, progress remained stalled, reinforcing concerns about the ongoing misuse of the criminal law.
In Australia, debate intensified in South Australia and New South Wales around the use of mandatory or forced HIV testing powers. Public health experts and community advocates raised concerns about the scientific basis, proportionality, and potential harms of these approaches.
And the United States faced a renewed and deeply troubling risk of regression under the shadow of the Trump administration’s domestic and global anti-rights agenda. Proposals to expand sexually transmitted infection criminalisation – including legislative initiatives in Louisiana – signalled how rapidly decades of hard-won progress can be dismantled when punishment, surveillance, and moral regulation are reasserted as policy priorities. In this climate, HIV criminalisation once again becomes a ready tool of control, underscoring how fragile reform remains and how urgently sustained resistance is required.
Looking ahead to 2026
Legal reform is both possible and underway, yet unjust prosecutions persist – and in some settings appear to be accelerating – even as HIV science has never been clearer about the effectiveness of treatment and the realities of transmission risk. The 112 reported cases are not merely a statistic; they reflect the continued, routine embedding of stigma within criminal legal systems, where outdated assumptions are enforced despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
In 2026, the HIV Justice Network will prioritise consolidating reform gains while confronting jurisdictions where criminalisation remains entrenched or is intensifying. This will include targeted advocacy and capacity-building in high-volume prosecution settings; strengthened documentation and analysis of enforcement patterns to support evidence-based reform; and deeper engagement with prosecutors, judges, and policymakers to bring law and practice into line with contemporary HIV science.
Central to this work will be two UNAIDS-supported initiatives: the completion and dissemination of Good Practices in HIV Decriminalisation, providing practical, jurisdiction-tested guidance for lawmakers and advocates; and the expansion of the Expert Consensus Statement on the Science of HIV in the Context of Criminal Law to explicitly address breastfeeding, ensuring that evolving evidence is accurately reflected in legal and policy frameworks.
Together, these efforts aim to prevent new prosecutions, reduce harm, and accelerate a coordinated, science-based push to end HIV criminalisation worldwide.