News by the HIV Justice Network

A court in Barrie, Ontario has found a woman, ‘JM’ not guilty of aggravated sexual assault for not disclosing her HIV status before her male partner performed oral sex on her. The Barrie Advance reports that Justice Gregory Mulligan… ruled…

The United States is closer than ever before in ensuring that their HIV-specific laws are reviewed and amended in order to be consistent with current medical and scientific knowledge. Earlier this week, the U.S. House Appropriations Committee passed an amendment proposed…

NAT (National AIDS Trust) is calling on all UK police forces to ensure their guidance and policies on HIV are up-to-date – and to use NAT’s new resource ‘HIV: A guide for Police Forces’ for this purpose. “HIV: A guide…

Reinstatement of controversial Health Provision slammed by HIV and Human Rights Groups, by Zoe Mavroudi [Republished from the radiobubble blog, with thanks to Zoe Mavroudi] A legal provision that led to mass arrests of HIV-positive women in Greece in 2012…

Today, the U.S. Conference of Mayors passed a resolution calling for “the elimination of HIV-specific criminal laws and implementation of approaches to HIV within the civil and criminal justice systems that are consistent with the treatment of similar health and…

A new report released today by the Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+) and the HIV Justice Network highlights the tireless work of advocates around the world challenging inappropriate criminal laws and prosecutions for HIV non-disclosure, potential or…

New guidance from UNAIDS to limit the overly broad use of criminal laws to regulate and punish people living with HIV who are accused of HIV non-disclosure, exposure and/or transmission, recommends that: Countries should develop and implement prosecutorial and police…

Today, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) publishes its long-awaited updated guidance to limit the overly broad use of criminal laws to regulate and punish people living with HIV who are accused of HIV non-disclosure, exposure and/or transmission….

A new guide which aims to address some of the realities and complexities faced by nurses and others who provide care to people living with HIV in Canada, is now available. Covering everything from record keeping, confidentiality, viral load and…

Meet Tami Haught: Iowa’s Anti-Criminalization Advocate  Tami Haught explains how, with the support of CHAIN (the Community HIV/Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network) and hundreds of Iowans living with HIV, she helped build a broad coalition to reform Iowa’s HIV criminalization…

Yesterday, California Congresswoman Barbara Lee (Democrat) was joined by Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican) to introduce a new version of the ‘Repeal Existing Policies that Encourage and Allow Legal HIV Discrimination Act’ (the ‘REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act’, or the ‘REPEAL…

The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has ruled that HIV infection may no longer be automatically considered a serious assault, due to improved outcomes in life-expectancy on antiretroviral therapy. A news article on the ruling, featuring Groupe sida Genève‘s spokesperson, Deborah…

Update: April 5th 2013 Very disappointing news from Botswana. The Public Health Bill – including all of its draconian provisions on HIV – has been approved by Parliament. BONELA issued this press release last week just prior to the vote….

The Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP), the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and the American Association of Prosecuting Attorneys (AAPA) today released a new fact sheet that they hope will bring law enforcement officers up…

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO) have submitted a paper to the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police Diversity Committee, informed by their extensive experience in working on the issue. The paper includes…

The German National AIDS Council – an independent advisory body of the Ministry of Health consisting of experts from the fields of research, medical care, public health services, ethics, law, social sciences, as well as people from the civil society…

A new toolkit from the Center for HIV Law and Policy / Positive Justice Project, released earlier this month, provides a wealth of information for lawyers representing people living with HIV who are facing criminal prosecution based on HIV status….

Yesterday saw the release of an important new UK study, Keeping Confidence: HIV and the criminal law from service provider perspectives, which explores how HIV criminalisation impacts those who deliver health and social care services for people with HIV. The…

Advisory group says these statutes are ‘unjust’ and fuel the epidemic BY TODD HEYWOOD, AMERICAN INDEPENDENT   The Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) passed a resolution last week that calls for an end to federal and state HIV-specific criminal…

Advocates in Nigeria have successfullly argued to remove a clause criminalising the ‘willful or deliberate spead of HIV’ from the latest draft of the long-awaited HIV and AIDS Anti-Discrimination Act. Last week, the National Agency for the Control of AIDS…

The British HIV Association (BHIVA) and the British Association for Sexual Health and HIV (BASHH) have produced updated guidance on HIV Transmission, the Law and the Work of the Clinical Team. This guidance is aimed at those working in the field…

Michigan health officials are using HIV surveillance technologies to assist in enforcing a “health threat” law that makes it illegal for HIV-positive people to have sex without disclosing their status. A new University of Michigan study reveals that health officials…

Carl W Rush’s powerful essay on the trial of Noel Bowland and Steven Boone who were found guilty on two counts each of aggravated sexual assault in December 2012 for allegedly not disclosing that they were HIV-positive before having a…

The road to law reform can be long and rocky, especially in a direct democracy like Switzerland. The proposed changes (for the better) to a law that has been used to prosecute people with HIV for potential exposure even when…

Yesterday was the deadline for written responses to the Norwegian Law Commission report which shocked and disappointed HIV and human rights advocates in Norway and around the world on its release last October. After spending almost two years examining every…