Our Annual Report 2021 is published by the HIV Justice Foundation, an independent non-profit legal entity registered in the Netherlands as Stichting HIV Justice to specifically serve as the fiscal organisation for the HIV Justice Network (HJN) and other related activities.

Kevin Moody, who served as Chair of the Foundation’s Supervisory Board during 2021, said: “HJN has once again in 2021 demonstrated its ability to impact the fight against HIV criminalisation, as outlined in the Foundation’s Annual Report 2021. Executive Director, Edwin J Bernard, and his team succeeded in continuing operations while developing a new strategic plan to shape the future of its work to curb HIV criminalisation.”

Much of the work undertaken by HJN and the global HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition – which HJN co-ordinates – has been funded by the Robert Carr Fund for civil society networks through the HIV Justice Global Consortium. Since 2019, HJN has been the lead grantee of the Consortium. Throughout the year, we oversaw the distribution of small grants either directly or through our Consortium partners working in Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA), Francophone Africa, Anglophone Africa, and Latin America and Caribbean.

 

Looking to the future

In June 2021, we published our 2022-26 Strategic Plan, which was developed incorporating the Global AIDS Strategy 2021-2026 goal of fewer than 10% of countries with punitive laws and policies including those that allow for HIV criminalisation. The HIV Justice Network is ready to take on the challenge to support advocates help countries achieve this target. That’s why we were delighted to receive news in December 2021 that two separate funding applications to the Robert Carr Fund were successful, placing us on firm footing to continue our work to end HIV criminalisation and support advocates pushing for their countries to achieve the Global AIDS Strategy goals.

Richard Elliott, who was appointed the Foundation’s Chair in March 2022 as Kevin Moody became Treasurer said: “In just a decade, HJN has made extraordinary contributions to the growing global movement against HIV criminalisation. Indeed, it is hard to imagine a global movement as such without HJN. The important victories against injustice show that resistance is worthwhile!  Guided by a new strategic plan, input from advocates and experts from around the world, and the deep expertise and vision of our Executive Director, the HIV Justice Network will continue to be a key force for change in the years ahead.”

Download the report here (English,  36 pages, pdf)

 

Although 2020 was the year that COVID-19 impacted us all, HIV criminalisation was still a major issue of concern. We began highlighting punitive responses to this latest pandemic in our HIV Justice Weekly newsletter in March 2020, but also documented at least 90 cases of unjust HIV criminalisation in 25 countries through our global monitoring work.

Kevin Moody, who became Chair of our Supervisory Board earlier this year, after joining the Board last September, said: “HJN realised major achievements last year, as outlined in our Annual Report 2020. Aside from fulfilling an essential leadership role in combatting HIV criminalisation and convening diverse partners globally, [Executive Director] Edwin J Bernard led the team in evaluating its strategy with an eye to remain fit for purpose in a rapidly changing environment moving forward. That this was all achieved in the context of COVID-19 speaks highly of the dedication of the team and partners to reduce unjust criminalisation of people living with HIV everywhere.”

A strategic review undertaken in 2020  found that HJN’s reputation amongst its stakeholders is strong, based on the expertise within the organisation, work it produces, and its leadership. Susequently, HJN grew over the past year, taking steps to expand the team to complement our existing capacity around campaigns and communications, and finance and administration. We also expanded our governance, adding new Supervisory Board members, and convened our Global Advisory Panel (GAP), an international expert reference group of activists, lawyers and academics – more than half of whom are openly living with HIV – from all regions of the world who are working on ending HIV and intersectional criminalisation.

Download the report here (English, 33 pages, pdf)

HIV Justice Network (HJN)’s first annual report covers 2019’s activities and financials – a landmark year for HJN, not only in terms of organisational growth, but also in terms of the scale-up of key resources and the provision of technical and financial support to organisations and networks in many regions of the world, all of which led to some remarkable advocacy successes.

“Our 2019 Annual Report illustrates the importance of joined-up activism towards a common goal. We can all play a part in resisting HIV criminalisation at home and across the globe. HJN, under the passionate leadership of Edwin Bernard, gives us the tools, the structures and the inspiration to do the job.”

Lisa Power, Chair, Supervisory Board

“This report highlights the achievements of our small team and our global partners in the last year, and demonstrates that we are delivering on our mission of challenging HIV criminalisation around the globe. We strive to defend the human rights of marginalised people with HIV in the face of unjustified and unscientific punitive laws – something that is now in even sharper focus with the coronavirus pandemic.”

Paul Kidd, Secretary, Supervisory Board

• Download the report here (English, 28 pages, pdf )