No-cost legal clinics available for NYC immigrants

If you are an immigrant in NYC, free legal clinics are available to help you. At these clinics, you can speak with a lawyer or a supervised law student at no cost. Many clinics help people regardless of immigration status and offer services in multiple languages. Clinics can help with immigration cases, housing issues, work problems, family matters, and other legal questions.

Pro-bono lawyers may have a full case load or have specific requirements for the clients they are able to see at this time. As an alternative, you can consider visiting a legal clinic which may have more opportunities advise you on your legal issue.

Most of these clinics will require an appointment, so you will need to email or call in advance.

If you are not sure where to begin, you can call the NYC Immigration Legal Support Hotline at 800-354-0365, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. The hotline is run by the NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairsand can help you find the right legal clinic for your situation.

Free, confidential help is available, and asking for help will not affect your immigration status.

Here are free legal clinics in New York City where you can get free legal advice, access to representation, or referrals.

Asian American Bar Association of New York

Partnering with local community organizations, the Asian American Bar Association of New York runs free monthly legal clinics in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Flushing. People can check the Pro Bono & Community Service Committee (PBCS) calendar for details about each scheduled clinic. Interpreters are available.

  • Queens pro bono clinic: First Wednesday of the month from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at AAFE One Flushing Community Center (133-29 41st Avenue, 2nd Floor, Flushing)
  • Manhattan pro bono clinic: Third Wednesday of the month from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at AAFE Community Center (111 Norfolk Street, Manhattan)
  • Brooklyn pro bono clinic: Held bi-monthly on the second Saturday of the month from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. at CPC Brooklyn Community Services (4101 8th Avenue, Brooklyn)

City Council Member Susan Zhuang’s office

Susan Zhuang’s office offers free legal clinics every Friday at 6514 20th Avenue in Brooklyn. People can call (718) 307-7151 or email District43@council.nyc.gov to make an appointment.

Legal Services NYC

Legal Services NYC runs clinics and study groups to help low-income clients. It has offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. People can call the citywide intake line at (917) 661-4500, Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., to get scheduled for a local clinic.

LGBT Bar NY

LGBT Bar NY offers free drop-in legal clinics for the LGBTQ community. The clinic is held on Tuesday evenings from 6 to 8 p.m. at 208 West 13th Street in Manhattan. No appointment is needed, but people should arrive before 5:45 p.m. to make sure they can be helped.

New York Legal Assistance Group (NYLAG)

NYLAG runs free legal counseling, including help with immigration issues. It is based in Lower Manhattan and also offers mobile clinics across New York City. People can check their mobile legal help calendar for regular clinic days and locations.

Urban Justice Center

The Urban Justice Center offers free legal clinics at City Council Amanda Farías’s district office (778 Castle Avenue, Bronx). These are held on the second and last Monday of every month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You must call (718) 792-1140 to make an appointment.

Need family law help? You can make an appointment at the family law clinic, which is held every Wednesday at the Urban Justice Center (40 Rector Street, 9th Floor, Manhattan) from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. You must call (833) 321-4387 to make an appointment.

If you can’t make it to the Manhattan office, you can also request a virtual appointment for family lawyers. Make an appointment by emailing cprisco@council.nyc.gov.

In addition, the Urban Justice Center offers even more clinics that cover public benefits, homeless issues, and landlord-tenant problems across New York City. Learn more about those clinics here. 

2025 in review: more reported cases, uneven reform

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.

Canada: Advocates urge Liberals to honour the Trudeau government’s commitment to reform HIV disclosure laws

Words aren’t enough: Canada must deliver on HIV criminal reform

HIV criminalization is not a new concern. For decades, people living with HIV in Canada have faced the reality that they can still face public outing by authorities, prosecution by the “justice” system, and imprisonment for allegedly not disclosing their HIV status to a sexual partner. This continues to be the case today, even in situations where there was no realistic possibility of transmission, no intent to transmit, and no transmission actually happened.

And for decades, people living with HIV, activists and community advocates, legal minds, and public health and medical experts have shown again and again that Canada’s terribly punitive approach is discriminatory, scientifically outdated, and harmful to public health. It reinforces and codifies systemic injustices and inequalities based on race, migration status, sexual orientation, and gender. It contradicts current science on HIV transmission, and it entrenches HIV stigma, further cementing barriers that people living with HIV face to accessing care and treatment, not to mention housing, employment, and personal safety. How can we expect people to feel safe getting tested and learning their HIV status when it could later be vindictively used against them?

That’s why it really mattered when, on December 1st, 2017, the Government of Canada acknowledged these very concerns and highlighted the problematic state of HIV criminalization on World AIDS Day in their report Criminal Justice System’s Response to Non-Disclosure of HIV. The problem is that since 2017, the government’s actions have not caught up to words and there has been little progress from Canada to right these wrongs. People living with HIV in this country continue to be forced to live in fear.

Over the last eight years, activists, led by people living with HIV themselves, have continued to move the needle on HIV criminalization. Thanks to their efforts, the federal government announced national consultations on HIV criminalization at the 2022 International AIDS Conference, which was held in Montreal. “Our government recognizes that the criminalization of people living with HIV can lead to stigmatization and significant hardships,” stated then-Minister of Justice David Lametti. “This is why we are consulting Canadians on the best approach to reform the criminal law regarding HIV non-disclosure. It will help us find solutions, and will lead to better outcomes for affected populations.”

Those consultations concluded in early 2023 and since that time, no law reform has been introduced. Productive meetings with advocates aimed at making meaningful change continued for a time, until the Government of Canada quietly informed us last year that it had put any plans for real justice on the backburner.

While other jurisdictions, including various American states, such as Nevada, Virginia, Maryland, and Illinois, narrow or eliminate misguided prosecutions, the threat of criminalization continues to hang over the heads of people living with HIV here in Canada. In parallel, at a time when fewer people are being diagnosed with HIV around the world, HIV cases rose a staggering 35.2% in Canada between 2022 and 2023. While preliminary data from 2024 indicate a slight decrease in new cases in Canada, only time will tell whether this represents a reversal from recent worrying trends. What remains clear is that Canada must do more – both in its legal and policy responses – to get back on track toward the goal of eliminating HIV as a public health threat by 2030.

And so, every World AIDS Day, advocates find themselves writing yet another op-ed urging Canada to act. The headlines over the past few years alone tell the story: “Unjust HIV Criminalization is a National Disgrace”; “The Government of Canada Must Act to End the Harms of HIV Criminalization”; “We Need to Stop Criminalizing People with HIV”; “Let’s Stop Criminalizing HIV Status.” How long until these headlines are finally replaced with news that Canada has followed through on its promises to end the harms of HIV criminalization?

With a new government in place, we are feeling more hopeful than we were last World AIDS Day. But this government still needs to take firm and decisive action to bring Canada’s laws in line with science and human rights, and remove the stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV that is currently entrenched in our justice system. In so doing, we could envision a very different headline for next year’s World AIDS Day op-ed, and a very different reality for people living with HIV in Canada.

Muluba Habanyama is the Chair of the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization

Colin Hastings is an Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo

André Capretti is a Policy Analyst at the HIV Legal Network

From Courtrooms to Communities:
Funding Advocacy to Sustain HIV Responses

Our Executive Director’s remarks on today’s webinar aimed at philanthropic funders, convened by Funders Concerned About AIDS.

Today, I’ll be connecting two major forces shaping the global HIV response: the wave of criminalisation targeting people living with HIV, people most vulnerable to HIV, and their advocacy organisations, as well as the expanding reach and impact of the Global Gag Order.

Both of these reflect the same problem – the use of law and policy to control bodies, silence communities, and restrict access to health and rights. By the end of this webinar, I hope it will be crystal clear why funding advocacy remains the single highest-impact investment funders can make.

The HIV Justice Network, which I lead, works to end the unjust use of criminal law against people living with HIV worldwide. We document laws and cases, support and train advocates, and co-ordinate the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition – connecting the global to local and back again, linking community organisations, lawyers, and human rights defenders across all regions of the world to reform laws and prosecutorial practices.

HIV criminalisation remains stubbornly and worryingly widespread. More than 130 countries have used criminal law against people living with HIV accused of non-disclosure, potential or perceived HIV exposure or unintentional HIV transmission. Currently, 83 countries have HIV-specific criminal laws. Others use general criminal laws like “bodily harm”, “endangering health,” and even “attempted murder.”

These laws, and their application, are often based on outdated science and moral panic. They make people living with HIV to be singularly responsible for HIV prevention. They punish us for transmission risks that no longer exist in the era of treatment as prevention – and consider the harm of HIV to be so exceptional they have special laws, or prosecutions, that specifically target people diagnosed HIV-positive. No other communicable disease is treated so problematically in law.

But HIV criminalisation doesn’t exist in isolation. It is part of a broader ecosystem of criminalisation that targets the very communities most affected by HIV – sex workers, migrants, people who use drugs, and LGBTQ+ people. When these populations are criminalised, they are pushed underground, excluded from health services, and made more vulnerable to violence and exploitation.

HIV criminalisation also has a gendered impact. Women are often the first to be diagnosed, especially during pregnancy, and therefore the first to face prosecution. In some countries, pregnant women living with HIV have been charged with endangering their unborn child or accused of transmission through breastfeeding.

Gender-based violence, unequal access to legal representation, and social stigma amplify these injustices. At the same time, the criminalisation of sex work and gender nonconformity exposes women – particularly trans women – to harassment and violence from authorities.

And increasingly, advocacy organisations themselves are being restricted by laws that limit freedom of association, deny foreign funding, or create a chilling effect through so-called “anti-propaganda” or “foreign agent” measures. In more and more countries, simply speaking out against criminalisation is considered to be subversive.

And then there is the Global Gag Order, reinstated and expanded in early 2025 under the Protecting Life in Global Health Assistance policy. This policy prohibits non-U.S. NGOs receiving U.S. global health funds from providing, referring for, or even discussing abortion as a method of family planning – even when using their own, non-U.S. resources. It now applies to all U.S. global health assistance, including HIV funding.

For communities and organisations already constrained by criminal laws, the gag order adds another layer of silencing.
• It disrupts integrated HIV and reproductive-health services.
• It forces organisations to choose between funding and integrity.
• It weakens partnerships built over decades of global health cooperation.
• And it amplifies the chilling effect – discouraging advocacy, speech, and even data collection on reproductive rights.

Once again, women and girls bear the brunt. When abortion access is restricted, maternal deaths rise, and the same clinics providing HIV care lose their ability to deliver comprehensive, rights-based health services.

So when we talk about decriminalisation, we’re not just talking about repealing one set of laws. We’re talking about defending the space for civil society, for public health, and for human rights to function at all.

Despite these challenges, advocacy works. Here’s some examples – with a focus on HIV decriminalisation.
• In the US, in the past year alone, Maryland and North Dakota have repealed their HIV-specific criminal laws, while Tennessee removed mandatory sex offender registration for HIV-related convictions.
• In Mexico, again thanks to community leadership, five states have repealed vague “danger of contagion” laws used for HIV criminalisation, with more to come.
• In EECA, civil society in Ukraine is working right now with parliamentary champions to remove an HIV criminalisation law from its criminal code, despite being in the middle of a war.
• In Africa, sustained community advocacy led to the repeal of Zimbabwe’s HIV-specific criminal law and the prevention of a new HIV criminalisation law in Malawi.

But these victories didn’t happen overnight. They resulted from years of partnership between communities, legal and scientific experts, and funders willing to invest in advocacy infrastructure.

Community-led organisations are the foundation of all this progress. We are the early-warning systems when new laws are proposed, and we are the first responders when individuals face charges. We mobilise people living with HIV, key population and women’s networks, and human rights defenders to speak directly with policymakers, prosecutors, and the media.

Philanthropy has a crucial role here. Advocacy funding remains a small fraction of global HIV philanthropy, yet it has exponential impact. Advocacy capacity cannot be switched on only when a law or case hits the headlines. It requires continuity, institutional memory, and relationships built over time.

Funding advocacy protects every other investment in prevention, treatment, and care. Without enabling environments – without legal and policy reform – those investments cannot succeed.

Funders can make the difference by:
• Providing core, flexible, multi-year support that allows community-led groups to stay engaged between crises.
• Investing in coalitions and regional and global networks, like HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE, linking legal, scientific and human rights expertise with communities.
• Supporting data, storytelling, and knowledge translation – turning lived experience and evidence into policy change.
• Protecting civil-society space, especially where advocacy itself is criminalised or restricted.

To close, I want to leave one thought: HIV justice is prevention.

Every law that criminalises people living with HIV, every law that targets LGBTQ+ people, sex workers, people who use drugs, or migrants – and every funding policy that silences reproductive rights – makes the global epidemic harder to end.

Ending AIDS requires more than medicines. It requires dismantling the legal and policy barriers that drive people away from care and from each other.

Ending HIV criminalisation is achievable. We have the science, the evidence, and the community power to do it. What we don’t always have is flexible, sustained, core funding. Advocacy is not optional; it is infrastructure – the connective tissue that holds the HIV response together.

Philanthropy has both the freedom and the responsibility to keep that justice space open – ensuring that evidence, human rights, and community leadership remain at the heart of the global HIV response.

That is how we move from courtrooms to communities – and closer to ending AIDS as a public-health and human-rights crisis.

Humanising the Law: Reflections on Two Decades of Advocacy Against HIV Criminalisation

This week, the international peer-reviewed journal, AIDS Care, published online a research paper that examines how two decades of scientific progress, community advocacy, and storytelling have come together to influence laws, policies, and public understanding of HIV in the context of the criminal law. 

In Humanising the law: harnessing science and community voices to end HIV criminalisation, I trace nearly twenty years of work to challenge HIV criminalisation, drawing on my own involvement and on the collective efforts of so many others in the HIV justice movement. 

Some of the key points include:

  • Science as evidence for change. The consensus that people on effective treatment cannot transmit HIV, and the 2018 Expert Consensus Statement, have reshaped legal reasoning and prevented unjust prosecutions.

  • Stories bring the impact to life. The ordeals of people such as Ugandan nurse Rosemary Namubiru and the real Malawian woman at the centre of our short film, Mwayi’s Story, highlight the human cost of HIV criminalisation and the resilience of those most affected.

  • Legal reforms are possible. Since the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition was created in 2016, over a dozen countries and jurisdictions around the world have repealed or modernised their HIV criminalisation laws.

But I also make it clear that much remains to be done. HIV criminalisation continues to undermine public health and human rights, particularly in environments shaped by authoritarianism, disinformation, and broader crackdowns on sexuality, gender, migration, sex work, and drug use.

That is why I argue for a paradigm shift – a humanisation of the law that centres lived experiences, affirms dignity, and ensures legal systems reflect science and rights rather than fear and prejudice. Achieving this requires:

  • Ongoing investment in legal reform, advocacy, and community-led monitoring.

  • Stronger cross-movement solidarity with those facing overlapping forms of criminalisation.

  • Sustained funding to support the global HIV justice movement for the long term.

As I conclude in the article: ending HIV criminalisation is not only about changing laws, but also about changing cultures. It is about recognising that our lives, our rights, and our voices matter.

A limited number of free eprints of this article are available from this link.

Global study reveals 50 countries still enforce HIV-related travel restrictions

A new global study presented this week at the 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Kigali (IAS 2025) has revealed that 50 countries around the world continue to enforce HIV-related travel and residence restrictions, in clear violation of international human rights principles.

The data, shared by the HIV Justice Network through its new platform Positive Destinations, highlights the persistence of discriminatory laws and policies that prevent people living with HIV from freely travelling, working, studying, or settling in many parts of the world.

Despite progress – 83 countries now have no HIV-specific travel restrictions, and many others have adopted more inclusive approaches – 17 countries still impose severe measures such as outright entry bans, mandatory testing, and deportation. These include Bhutan, Brunei, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Malaysia, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates. Migrants and students are often disproportionately affected, with some unaware of the rules until after testing or disclosure, resulting in forced returns, loss of income, and separation from families.

Another 33 countries – including Australia, Canada, Kazakhstan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Singapore – have partial restrictions. These include requirements for HIV testing in visa applications, discretionary decisions based on perceived healthcare costs, and reduced access to essential services. Although these policies may appear neutral on the surface, they continue to disadvantage people living with HIV.

“These restrictions are rooted in outdated public health thinking and perpetuate stigma,” said Edwin J Bernard, HIV Justice Network’s Executive Director. “They obstruct access to healthcare, education, and family life, especially for migrants and refugees.”

   Click on the image to download the poster

In 2024, Positive Destinations documented several cases of deportation based solely on HIV status: Kuwait deported over 100 people, Russia’s Dagestan region deported nine, and Libya deported two. Such practices are increasingly being challenged by legal action. In Canada, for example, a court case led by the HIV Legal Network contests the “excessive demand” clause of immigration law, arguing it violates the country’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

However, policy reform has been uneven. Australia raised its health cost threshold for visa eligibility, slightly easing access to temporary stays, but permanent residency remains elusive for many people with HIV. A recent case saw an Italian teacher denied residency due solely to his HIV-positive status.

The study also underscores how HIV-related migration barriers often intersect with other forms of criminalisation and discrimination. In Uzbekistan and Russia, HIV criminalisation laws are paired with mandatory HIV testing for migrants. In the U.S., HIV-positive and LGBTQ+ asylum seekers continue to face mistreatment in detention centres. And in a tragic case in Turkey, a Syrian trans woman was reportedly deported after her HIV status was disclosed and later killed upon return.

The authors of the study call for urgent action: “Eliminating these harmful policies is essential to ending AIDS, achieving universal health coverage, and upholding the dignity and rights of people living with HIV everywhere,” said Bernard.

Positive Destinations, which hosts the updated Global Database on HIV-Specific Travel and Residence Restrictions, is available at www.positivedestinations.info

EP0623 Addressing HIV-related travel restrictions: Progress and challenges in eliminating discriminatory policies by Edwin J Bernard, Sylvie Beaumont, Elliot Hatt, and Sofía Várguez was presented at IAS2025 by Brent Allan at the 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science, Kigali, Rwanda.

New global data reveals rising HIV criminalisation amid stalling legal reforms

The HIV Justice Network published new data this week showing a troubling rise in the number of people criminalised for HIV non-disclosure, potential or perceived exposure, or unintentional transmission in 2024 and the first half of 2025. As legal reforms appear to be stalling, discriminatory prosecutions, harsh sentences, and misuse of outdated laws continue to impact people with HIV and the HIV response.

The figures, presented at the 13h IAS Conference on HIV Science (IAS 2025) in Kigali, Rwanda, are drawn from the Global HIV Criminalisation Database. The database documents criminal cases and legal developments involving HIV-specific or general criminal laws worldwide.

In 2024, at least 65 HIV criminalisation cases were reported across 22 countries – up from 57 in 2023 and 50 in 2022. Russia (25 cases) and the United States (11) led the global tally, followed by Uzbekistan, Spain, Argentina, Belarus, Senegal, and Singapore. For the first time, prosecutions were documented in Panama and Uruguay.

The upward trend continued into 2025, with 48 cases reported in just the first six months. Uzbekistan (28) and Russia (9) again accounted for the majority, alongside new cases in the U.S., Canada, and Argentina. However, the actual number of cases is likely much higher, particularly in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the United States, where civil society organisations report many cases go undocumented.

“These cases show that HIV criminalisation remains a global crisis,” said Edwin J. Bernard, Executive Director of the HIV Justice Network. “Far too often, people living with HIV are prosecuted not for causing harm, but simply for living with a health condition – often in ways that are unscientific, discriminatory, and deeply unjust.”

                 Download the poster by clicking on the image

The report highlights the intersection of HIV criminalisation with racism, homophobia, gender-based discrimination, and systemic inequality. In Senegal, for example, prosecutions have disproportionately targeted LGBTQ+ individuals. In the U.S., criminal laws continue to be weaponised against communities of colour, even in cases involving no risk of transmission – such as spitting, or sex with an undetectable viral load.

One of the most alarming cases occurred in South Africa, where a former soldier was sentenced to life plus ten years for rape and attempted murder after failing to disclose his HIV status to a consenting partner – despite no evidence of intent or actual transmission. Advocates warn that such cases equate HIV non-disclosure with sexual violence and undermine decades of public health and human rights gains.

Yet, amidst the setbacks, 2024/2025 also brought some signs of hope. Maryland and North Dakota fully repealed their HIV-specific laws, while Tennessee removed mandatory sex offender registration for HIV-related convictions. Mexico City and Colima repealed vague “danger of contagion” laws, and Ukraine’s parliament voted to remove HIV from its criminal code.

In Zimbabwe, community activism helped block a proposal to re-criminalise HIV transmission. However, a new law was introduced criminalising the deliberate transmission of STIs to children, including HIV – raising fears it could be used against mothers living with HIV, particularly in breastfeeding cases.

Despite these advances, HIV criminalisation remains widespread. A total of 83 countries still have HIV-specific laws, and 23 countries reported prosecutions in this period using either HIV-specific or general laws. The HIV Justice Network warns that without urgent action, the world is unlikely to meet UNAIDS’ target of reducing punitive laws to below 10% of countries by 2030.

“The path forward must be rooted in science, rights, and community leadership,” Bernard said. “We must end laws that punish people for their status, and instead build legal systems that support health, dignity, and justice.”

EPO622 Recent progress and setbacks in HIV criminalisation around the world by Edwin J Bernard, Sylvie Beaumont, and Elliot Hatt was presented at IAS 2025 by Paul Kidd at 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Kigali, Rwanda.

 

HIV Unwrapped: Justice in Every Stitch

At the intersection of science, art, and activism, HIV Unwrapped is a bold new exhibit reimagining the lab coat as a symbol of resistance, resilience, and representation.

HIV Unwrapped reveals not only the fabric of HIV science, but the human stories stitched within.

Among the collaborations launched today at the 13th IAS Conference on HIV Science in Kigali is a garment created by Kigali-based fashion design student, Dolice Niyomukiza, in partnership with HIV Justice Network’s Executive Director, Edwin Bernard.

Working remotely through online meetings and WhatsApp messages, Dolice and Edwin forged a creative partnership grounded in storytelling, symbolism, and shared commitment.

Dolice’s design, inspired by the ongoing fight for HIV justice, incorporates visual elements representing both the scales of justice and the weight of stigma. 

“My design was inspired by the idea that having HIV is not a crime,” Dolice explains. “My goal was to fight stigma and make people feel strong, loved, and safe.”

Her sketches evolved into a garment that embodies both struggle and strength – a powerful tribute to those unjustly criminalised because of their HIV status.

“Dolice listened deeply,” said Edwin. “She translated complex legal and social issues into fabric, texture and form. Her design doesn’t just speak – it demands to be heard.”

Dolice is one of 12 students from Rwanda Polytechnic – Kigali College (IPRC-Kigali) whose designs feature in the exhibition, alongside peers from London’s Central St Martins and Melbourne’s Royal Institute of Technology.

Together, their work weaves a global narrative of creativity and courage, shaped by cross-continental collaboration.

Today’s launch brought many of these young designers together to showcase their work and share their stories.

The event was hosted by Karl Schmid, HIV-positive broadcaster and host of +LIFE, with welcoming remarks from Beatriz Grinsztejn, President of the International AIDS Society.

Additional speakers included Alexis Apostolellis, CEO of ASHM; Dr. Alice Ikuzwe, Deputy Principal of Academics and Training at IPRC-Kigali; and Ophelia Haanyama, a woman living with HIV from Zambia who migrated to Sweden in 1991.

Criminalization and funding cuts threaten global progress against HIV/AIDS

High-risk HIV groups facing record levels of criminalisation as countries bring in draconian laws

Curbs on LGBTQ+ rights and a halt to US funding may reverse decades of progress in fight to end Aids epidemic, warns UNAids.

People at higher risk of HIV, such as gay men and people who inject drugs, are facing record levels of criminalisation worldwide, according to UNAids.

For the first time since the joint UN programme on HIV/Aids began reporting on punitive laws a decade ago, the number of countries criminalising same-sex sexual activity and gender expression has increased.

In the past year, Mali has made homosexuality a criminal offence, where the law previously only banned “public indecency”, and has also criminalised transgender people. Trinidad and Tobago’s court of appeal has overturned a landmark 2018 ruling that decriminalised consensual same-sex relations, reinstating the colonial-era ban. In Uganda, the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Acthas “intensified the proscription of same-sex relations”, and Ghana has moved in a similar direction with the reintroduction of legislation that would increase sentences for gay sex.

The crackdown on gay rights comes as the fight against HIV/Aids has been hit by abrupt US funding cuts, which have combined with “unprecedented” humanitarian challenges and climate crisis shocks to jeopardise hopes of ending the global epidemic this decade, UNAids said.

Several groups of people, known as “key populations”, are more likely to be infected with HIV. They include sex workers, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and those in prisons and other enclosed settings.

In 2025, only eight of 193 countries did not criminalise any of those groups or behaviours, or criminalise non-disclosure of HIV status, exposure or transmission, according to the report.

The number of people infected by HIV or dying from Aids-related causes in 2024 was the lowest for more than 30 years, according to the UNAids annual report, at 1.3 million and 630,000 respectively.

Progress was uneven – ranging from a 56% fall in infections since 2010 in sub-Saharan Africa to a 94% increase in the Middle East and North Africa. But coupled with scientific advances – such as twice-yearly drugs to prevent infection – the world had the “means and momentum” to end Aids as a public health threat by 2030, an internationally agreed goal, it said.

However, that has been “seriously jeopardised” in the early months of this year after sweeping US aid cuts that could undo decades of progress. In January, Donald Trump cut funding that had underpinned much of the global HIV response almost overnight.

The report highlights HIV-prevention services as an area of concern, with many particularly reliant on donor funding. The reported number of people receiving preventive drugs in Nigeria in November 2024 was approximately 43,000. By April 2025, that number had fallen to below 6,000.

Activists say access to prevention will be a particular issue for key populations, who may not be able to access mainstream healthcare due to factors such as stigma or fear of prosecution, but relied on donor-funded community clinics that have now closed.

Key populations were “always left behind”, said Dr Beatriz Grinsztejn, president of the International Aids Society (IAS).

The report is being released before an IAS conference next week in Kigali, Rwanda, where researchers will share data on the impact of cuts.

Modelling by Bristol University calculated that a one-year halt in US funding for preventive drugs in key populations in sub-Saharan Africa would mean roughly 700,000 people no longer used them, and lead to about 10,000 extra cases of HIV over the next five years.

UNAids modelling suggests that without any replacement for funding from US Pepfar (president’s emergency plan for Aids relief), an additional 4m deaths and 6m new infections could be expected globally by 2029.

However, Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAids, said 25 of the 60 low- and middle-income countries included in the report had found ways to increase HIV spending from domestic resources to 2026. “This is the future of the HIV response – nationally owned and led, sustainable, inclusive and multisectoral,” she said.

HJN’s Executive Director remarks to the
56th UNAIDS Board (PCB)

These remarks were made during the discussion of the proposed new Global AIDS Strategy (2026-31), the outline of which can be found here.

I’m the Executive Director of the HIV Justice Network, speaking on behalf of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE, a coalition of community-led and community-based organisations working to end HIV criminalisation and related injustices.

Last June, I was a panellist during the Thematic Meeting on the Sustainability of HIV Response. You may recall that I highlighted that decriminalisation not only saves lives but it also saves money.

And so we welcome the direction of the new Global AIDS Strategy – especially Priority 2: People-focused – equity, dignity, and access, and Priority 3: Powered communities leading the HIV response, and the related results areas 6: End stigma and discrimination and uphold human rights and gender equality, and 8. Ensure community leadership.

But these priorities and results will remain aspirational unless they are backed by sustained, core funding for community-led networks.

Like UNAIDS itself, the HIV justice movement was born out of crisis, but it is sustained by hope. We know change is possible because we’ve seen it, even under the most difficult conditions. In fact, in just the past five years, 25 jurisdictions in 11 countries have repealed or revised their HIV criminalisation laws – motivated by everything from the futility of enforcement to the need to uphold privacy rights, recognise up-to-date science, and avoid harm to public health.

We have been making progress. But it is patently clear we cannot take any of that progress for granted. Communities, even if they and their organisations are criminalised, will continue to do much of the heavy lifting – reaching those who are excluded, challenging stigma and discrimination, and holding legal systems and governments accountable. That work takes time, trust, and skills – and it’s only possible when core funding is available to sustain expert teams and nurture leadership.

Global networks like ours are crucial in this ecosystem. With core, flexible funding – such as that provided by the Robert Carr Fund which has supported much of our work over the past decade – we support regional and national partners, strengthen the evidence base, build local advocacy capacity, and amplify community voices, including HIV criminalisation survivors. And we complement – not duplicate – Global Fund investments at the country level.

If we want a strategy that results in HIV justice, one that prioritises decriminalisation and is powered by communities, we must also continue to fund those communities that have brought us this far.