Two significant days in the HIV justice calendar

28th February marks the second HIV is Not a Crime Awareness Day. Launched by the Sero Project — our US partners in the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition — in collaboration with The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, the day has four overarching aims: to STRENGTHEN the movement by committing to ENGAGE with networks of people living with HIV and our allies working to REFORM HIV criminalisation so we can OVERCOME over-policing and targeting of people with HIV, understanding the intersection with racial, gender and sexual and reproductive justice.

The choice of date is the bridge that connects two other important US awareness days: National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (7^th February) and National Women & Girls’ HIV/AIDS Awareness Day (10^th March). Black and Brown communities — including Black and Brown women and women of trans experience — are most impacted by HIV criminalisation in the US. This date is also a symbolic nod to the legacy of the late Hollywood icon and notable AIDS activist, Elizabeth Taylor, in celebration of her birthday on 27^th February.

You can find events taking place all over the United States on the HINAC Day Facebook page or by following the hashtag #HINACDay. If you would like to sign on as an individual and/or organisation in support of the US movement to end HIV criminalisation, click here.

The following day, 1^st March, sees an important global event, Zero Discrimination Day, first established by UNAIDS in 2014. Zero Discrimination Day is a global solidarity movement that celebrates the right of everyone to live a full and productive life with dignity. It highlights how people can become informed about and promote inclusion, compassion, peace and, above all, a movement for change.

Each year has a specific theme. This year’s theme is Save lives: Decriminalise. With this theme, UNAIDS is highlighting how the human rights goals of decriminalisation of people living with HIV and key populations could have a major impact on health and wellbeing — as well as help advance the end of AIDS a public health threat.

In 2021, the world set ambitious law reform targets to remove criminal laws that are undermining the HIV response and leaving criminalised populations behind. Recognising decriminalisation as a critical element in the response, countries made a commitment that by 2025 fewer than 10% of countries would have punitive legal and policy environments that affect the HIV response, including HIV criminalisation.

Unfortunately, we’re far from those targets, but there is hope. You can find events taking place all over the world by following the hashtag #ZeroDiscrimination. On Zero Discrimination Day, we’re delighted to participate in a webinar — co-hosted by the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition, the Not A Criminal Campaign, and the Global Partnership to end HIV-related Stigma and Discrimination — from 12pm Central European Time that will explore how law reform is possible. Register at: http://bit.ly/3K5UJVd

Celebrating love and advocacy this Valentine’s Day

February is not only the month of love, it is also the anniversary of the establishment of the HIV Justice Network through our founding document, the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation.

It’s only appropriate, then, to celebrate both love and advocacy this Valentine’s Day.

Given the difficulty that some people living with HIV can face when it comes to finding love, including negotiating disclosure, as well as sex for pleasure, work, and/or creating a family in the context of HIV criminalisation, it is important to acknowledge that everyone is deserving of love and affirmation.

Love is also about respect for our autonomy, and so this Valentine’s Day we also need to stand up against public health officials taking and sharing data by using our blood without consent.

This year the HIV Justice Network is supporting two Valentine’s Day campaigns for and about people living with HIV, led by women living with HIV.

#LovePositiveWomen Campaign

The Love Positive Women campaign, developed and led by women living with HIV, is a global initiative running every Feb Feb 1^st-14^th for each of us to express and share our love and support for all women living with HIV.

The campaign uses social media to link local grassroots gestures of love to each other. Using Valentine’s Day as a backdrop, Love Positive Women “creates a platform for individuals and communities to engage in public and private acts of love and caring for women living with HIV.”

Going beyond romantic love to deep community love and social justice, the campaign is also a call to action. The HIV Justice Network has been supporting this campaign since 2017.

Follow the conversation using #LovePositiveWomen on social media.

#EndMHS Campaign

This Valentine’s Day, Positive Women’s Network-USA is spearheading a US-focused campaign tweeting at the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) with messages full of tough love and snark about ending molecular HIV surveillance (MHS).

Molecular HIV surveillance and cluster detection and response (MHS-CDR) is one of four pillars of the US Ending the Epidemic Initiative. PWN-USA and many other organisations working on the rights of people living with HIV, including the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition, have serious concerns about using personal medical information – including our blood – for surveillance purposes without meaningfully involving people living with HIV, without informed consent, and often even without our knowledge.

HIV surveillance and HIV criminalisation collide to put the human rights of people living with HIV at risk and can be especially dangerous for Black and Brown people, migrants, sex workers, transgender women, and other communities that are hyper-policed and over-surveilled.

Recently, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) unanimously passed an historic resolution that responds to these concerns, and urges the CDC to change their guidance on MHS-CDR activities.

Tell the CDC that they must implement the PACHA resolution by using the social media toolkit and the hashtags #ILoveConsent #MyBodyMyData #CommunitiesNotClusters #EndMHS

Watch HIV Justice Live! which explores the history behind, and impact of our founding document, the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation. Hosted by HJN’s founder and Executive Director, Edwin J Bernard, the show, From Moment to Movement, featured some of the advocates who were behind the Oslo Declaration: Kim Fangen, Patrick Eba, Michaela Clayton, Ralf Jürgens and Susan Timberlake.

Thought-provoking new report from Canada on alternatives to HIV criminalisation

This week, our close partners in the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition, the Canadian-based HIV Legal Network, published a thought-provoking new report, A gender-centred dialogue on alternative justice responses to HIV non-disclosure criminalization in English and French.

Whilst the report focuses on the specifics of the Canadian situation, it provides for provocative and stimulating reading that should inspire all of us working to end HIV criminalisation and other punitive approaches to HIV prevention.

Funded by Women and Gender Equality (WAGE) Canada, the brief synthesises and builds upon the roundtable that was co-hosted by the HIV Legal Network with the Women & HIV/AIDS Initiative (WHAI) and Communities, Alliances & Networks (CAAN) in June 2022.

The objective of the roundtable was to gather cross-sector perspectives about whether an alternative justice approach is warranted or appropriate in situations of HIV non-disclosure.

Given the unique legal situation in Canada, where HIV non-disclosure is prosecuted as sexual assault, and given the interaction between HIV criminalisation, disclosure, and gender – including the risks of gender-based violence and gendered power dynamics – the discussions were grounded in gender-centred considerations.

Since most alternative justice responses focus on repairing the harm caused by an individual and include holding people accountable for their actions, the roundtable and the report raised questions around applying the notions of “harms” or “wrongdoing” to HIV non-disclosure.

Is HIV non-disclosure a harm in and of itself? Or does it depend on the circumstances and characteristics of the involved parties?

Given its harmful impacts, there was a consensus among participants that the criminal law is not the appropriate instrument to respond to HIV non-disclosure.

To respond to the needs of people who experience non-disclosure and account for the realities of women and gender-diverse people including those living with HIV, roundtable participants discussed potential alternative responses, including restorative and transformative justice models.

The roundtable and the report also focused on community-based alternatives to the criminal legal system, notably how to foster collaboration between the HIV sector, the sexual assault and gender-based violence sector, and alternative justice organisations.

Three main themes on alternative community-based interventions emerged from the roundtable:

1. Creating enabling environments for positive and healthy sexuality and sexual relationships.

2. Delivering dynamic, non-shame-based, responses to situations of non-disclosure that depend on the needs of the parties and communities involved.

3. Recognising that an alternative justice approach to HIV non-disclosure must be one that transforms the conditions that lead to increased HIV vulnerability and experiences of violence and criminalisation, all of which must be grounded in an anti-racist and anti-colonial approach.

The report concludes that the current state of HIV criminalisation is untenable and fails to promote “justice” for anyone involved. It ends with a number of recommendations from the HIV Legal Network aimed at the federal government, public health departments, and HIV-impacted communities that primarily focus on creating a supportive, enabling environment for HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

You can find A gender-centred dialogue on alternative justice responses to HIV non-disclosure criminalization in the English and French versions of the Resource Library of the HIV Justice Academy, as well as on the HIV Legal Network‘s website.

Russia: Most HIV clinicians support HIV criminalisation

A sobering new study from Russia undertaken by the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS (EWNA) has found that the majority of HIV clinicians surveyed support HIV criminalisation, with some even believing the current law should be stricter. Those who said they support decriminalisation tended to work at private clinics and were more likely not to question the HIV prevention benefit of antiretroviral therapy.

The study, Attitudes of infectious disease doctors and epidemiologists at AIDS centres towards the criminalization of HIV in the Russian Federation was published in Russian this week by EWNA with financial support from the Robert Carr Fund.

Last year, EWNA undertook an online survey to examine the attitudes of infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists working at state-run AIDS prevention and control centres, as well as other HIV clinicians, towards HIV criminalisation in Russia. They received 186 responses, of which 22 were excluded due the respondents not being HIV clinicians, and 164 responses were analysed.

Of all respondents, 50 (30.5%) worked in AIDS centres, 46 (28%) in hospitals, 34 (27%) in polyclinics, 33 (20.1%) in private clinics and 1 (0.6%) in a clinical diagnostic department. The doctors had been qualified for an average of 13.5 years, with an average 5 years’ experience in the HIV field, and saw, on average, 16 HIV patients a day. The majority worked in cities with a population of more than a million people.

A total of 115 (70.1%) respondents were aware of the content of Russia’s HIV-specific criminal law – ‘Article 122: Infection with HIV’. Infectious disease doctors and epidemiologists were more familiar with the law than doctors in other specialties, and the same was true of AIDS centre staff compared with staff at other medical institutions.

Those who were unaware of the law were provided with a brief overview of its contents before continuing the survey. You can read the full text of the law, and our analysis of its impact, at HJN’s Global HIV Criminalisation Database.

Of all the doctors surveyed, 23 (14%) reported that their patients had been prosecuted under the law, and eleven (6.7%) respondents had given evidence in court.

Most HIV clinicians surveyed supported HIV criminalisation with only a minority agreeing that the law should be completely repealed (23%), reclassified as an administrative offence (15%) or remain as is but with reduced penalties (7%).

Those working in infectious diseases or epidemiology and/or employees of state-run AIDS centres were more likely than doctors of other professions or working in private clinics to argue for a stricter law. Conversely, employees of private fee-paying clinics were more likely to be in favour of reclassifying the law as an administrative offence or abolishing the law altogether.

Notably, respondents in favour of decriminalisation were more likely to say that they were open to having a relationship with a person living with HIV.

The clinicians were also asked about their understanding of the concept of ‘Undetectable equals untransmittable’ (U=U). Only 37% wholeheartedly agreed with the concept, with another 35% agreeing but with certain caveats. Respondents opposing HIV decriminalisation more often than others considered the U=U principle to be wrong, or considered it to be generally correct, but with caveats. Of note, a recently published study found that across Russia only 45% of people with HIV currently receive antiretroviral therapy.

Russia continues to be one of most aggressive enforcers of HIV criminalisation globally with a very high number of unjust arrests, investigations and prosecutions reported each year. The study results suggest that much more work needs to be done to educate HIV clinicians about the harms of HIV criminalisation to both public health and human rights, as well as the unequivocable benefits of HIV treatment on both health and prevention.

The original Russian-language report and the machine translated English version can be found in the Resource Library of the HIV Justice Academy.

Discussion Guide for Mwayi’s Story now available

Mwayi’s Story is a short film about courage and women standing up for their rights that was released earlier this year.

Watch the film

The film is based on the story of a woman in Malawi who was prosecuted for briefly breastfeeding another woman’s baby. After the case, the community campaigned to stop an HIV criminalisation statute from being passed.

Mwayi’s Story can be used as an awareness-raising and educational resource in classes, webinars and workshops.

The new Discussion Guide was created to help facilitators lead conversations before and after viewing the film.

The Guide provides some background and then poses a number of questions to stimulate thought and discussion. Not all questions are suited to all audiences.

Download the Discussion Guide

The film has already been shown in a number of forums since its release last May, including at AIDS 2022. It has now been subtitled in French, Russian and Spanish, and we are also looking for partners to translate additional subtitles if they think the film can be useful in their own advocacy. If you’re interested you can get in touch with us at breastfeeding@hivjustice.net. We will send you the English subtitle file for translation. After you return the file to us, we will upload it to YouTube.

Mwayi’s Story is part of our ongoing work to end the criminalisation of women living with HIV for breastfeeding and comfort nursing, including our Breastfeeding Defence Action Toolkit – one of six Action Toolkits in the HIV Justice Academy.

It is our goal to collaborate with advocates, researchers, service providers, organisations and community members around the world to raise awareness and prevent further unjust prosecutions against women living with HIV who breastfeed or comfort nurse. We are grateful to both the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation and the Robert Carr Fund for their financial support for this work, and this film.

HIV Justice Academy now available in French
HIV Justice Academy est désormais disponible en français

En français ci-dessous

The HIV Justice Academy is now available in French at academy.hivjustice.net/fr. Launched initially in English, the platform architecture allows for content in multiple languages. Spanish and Russian versions will be announced soon.

The Academy is a global learning and resource hub designed to support people who want to be part of the movement to end HIV criminalisation. It comprises three sections:

on-demand Online Learning
practical Action Toolkits
and an extensive Resource Library.

At the heart of the HIV Justice Academy is the HIV Criminalisation Online Course which provides a global overview of HIV criminalisation, useful for anyone who is interested in learning more about HIV criminalisation and how to advocate effectively against it.

With its free and accessible written and video resources, we hope that the HIV Justice Academy will engage a growing community of HIV justice activists and advocates, providing timely and accessible learning, tools and resources, so that progressive change can be achieved in legal and policy environments for people living with HIV at national, regional, and international levels.

HIV Justice Academy est maintenant disponible en français à l’adresse academy.hivjustice.net/fr

Lancée initialement en anglais, l’architecture de la plateforme permet d’accueillir un contenu en plusieurs langues. Les versions espagnole et russe seront bientôt annoncées.

L’Académie est un centre mondial d’apprentissage et de ressources conçu pour soutenir les personnes qui souhaitent participer au mouvement visant à mettre fin à la pénalisation du VIH.

Elle se compose de trois sections :

Au cœur de l’Académie se trouve le cours en ligne sur la pénalisation du VIH, qui présente un aperçu général de la pénalisation du VIH, utile pour toute personne souhaitant approfondir ses connaissances sur la pénalisation du VIH et sur les stratégies de plaidoyer efficaces contre celle-ci.

Grâce à ses ressources documentaires et vidéos gratuites et accessibles, nous espérons que l’Académie mobilisera l’intérêt d’une communauté croissante d’activistes et de militants œuvrant pour la justice en matière de VIH, et que grâce à ses cours opportuns et accessibles, ses outils et ses ressources, des transformations progressives pourront être apportées à l’environnement juridique et politique des personnes vivant avec le VIH sur le plan national, régional et international.

Russia: Court finds refusal to let migrant woman stay in Russia because of her HIV status unlawful

Court in Krasnodar invalidates refusal to allow a foreigner with HIV to stay in Russia

Translated via Deepl.com. For original article in Russian, please scroll down.

The Krasnodar Territory Department of the Russian Federal Consumer Rights Protection and Human Health Control Service decided that Uzbek citizen X. was undesirable in Russia because of her HIV positive status. The Leninskiy Court in Krasnodar found the ban discriminatory and unlawful.

The foreigner went to court to challenge the decision to ban her from staying in Russia, pointing out that her parents, brother and sister reside in Russia and have Russian citizenship, and she has never violated the law. When Rosia appealed to Rospotrebnadzor to cancel the decision, they replied that the procedure for cancellation or suspension under this category was not regulated by law and that the contested decision could only be cancelled on the basis of a court decision.

The court found that under the law On the Prevention of the Spread of Disease Caused by HIV in the Russian Federation, foreigners and stateless persons with such status may stay in the country if they do not violate administrative and criminal law. The Russian Constitutional Court has also confirmed the illegality of such restrictions.

As a result, the Leninskiy Court in Krasnodar ordered the regional department of Rospotrebnadzor to reverse the decision on the undesirability of the Uzbekistani citizen, who is now allowed to enter the country.

Суд в Краснодаре признал незаконным отказ во въезде в Россию иностранке с ВИЧ

Управление Роспотребнадзора по Краснодарскому краю приняло решение о нежелательности нахождения в России гражданки Узбекистана Р.Р. из-за ее положительного ВИЧ-статуса. Ленинский суд Краснодара признал запрет дискриминационным и незаконным.

Иностранка обратилась в суд, оспаривая решение о запрете пребывания в России, указав: ее родители, брат и сестра проживают в России и имеют российское гражданство, она ни разу не нарушала законодательство. Когда Розия обратилась в Роспотребнадзор с требованием отменить решение, там ответили – порядок отмены или приостановления по этой категории законодательно не урегулирован и отмена оспариваемого решения возможна только на основании решения суда.

Суд установил, что по закону “О предупреждении распространения в Российской Федерации заболевания, вызываемого ВИЧ” иностранцы и лица без гражданства с подобным статусом могут находиться в стране, если не нарушают административное и уголовное законодательство. Незаконность такого ограничения подтверждает и Конституционный суд России.

В итоге Ленинский суд Краснодара обязал региональное управление Роспотребнадзора отменить решение о нежелательности пребывания гражданки Узбекистана, которой теперь разрешен въезд в страну.

Mexico: LGBTQ+ community calling for the repeal of HIV criminalisation statute in Quintana Roo Public Health Law

LGBTQ+ community calls for changes to Quintana Roo Health Law

Translated via Deepl.com. Please scroll down for original article in Spanish.

The LGBTQ+ community is calling for the repeal of the criminalisation of HIV transmission in the Quintana Roo Health Law.

The LGBTQ+ community, in a working meeting with local Congresswoman Estefanía Mercado Asencio, requested the repeal of Article 113 of the Quintana Roo Health Law, which criminalises the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases, specifically HIV.

The repeal of this article, found in Title Eight, Chapter II, Communicable Diseases, has been requested for several Legislatures, but has been ignored, said Omar Ortiz, the President of the Civil Association “Información y Educación Sexual”.

At the meeting, which was attended by people representing sexually diverse populations, people involved in the HIV response and mothers of various sexually diverse populations, a request was made to encourage municipalities to have a Sexual Diversity Unit, as in Solidaridad, which is the only municipality with such a unit, and for the State Government to have a Secretariat for Sexual Diversity.

“We were attending to the pending legislative agenda, with respect to what is already advanced and what is pending in the matter, at the local level; we talked about article 113 of the Health Law, which criminalises the issue of HIV, as well as the fact that Solidaridad is the only municipality that has a Unit for the Attention to Sexual Diversity, and she, as a deputy, has the possibility of presenting an initiative so that all municipalities have this position,” he pointed out.

“The article criminalises the fact of transmission, when it is an issue that cannot be scientifically proven; I cannot prove that you have transmitted HIV to me because there is no scientific or laboratory mechanism that allows us to know that it was you and not another partner or my sexual contacts, nor at what moment it happened. There is no way to apply that article, it is basically up to interpretation and that cannot be in the law.

Another issue they asked the Congresswoman to address is the creation of the Unit for Comprehensive Care of Sexually Diverse Populations and Children and Adolescents who require specialised endocrinology care, which responds to the needs of social minorities, such as the transgender population, in order to carry out their transition process under medical supervision, without endangering their lives and health.

Exige comunidad LGBTQ+ cambios a Ley de Salud de Quintana Roo

La comunidad LGBTQ+ pide derogar la criminalización del hecho de la transmisión del VIH en la Ley de Salud de Quintana Roo.

La comunidad LGBTQ+, en reunión de trabajo con la Diputada local, Estefanía Mercado Asencio, solicitó derogar el artículo 113 de la Ley de Salud de Quintana Roo ya que, criminaliza el hecho de la transmisión de enfermedades venéreas, en específico del VIH.

El citado artículo, ubicado en el Título Octavo, Capítulo II, Enfermedades Transmisibles, se ha pedido su derogación desde hace varias Legislaturas, pero ha sido ignorado, apuntó el Presidente de la Asociación Civil “Información y Educación Sexual”, Omar Ortiz.

En el encuentro donde participaron personas de la diversidad sexual, de respuesta del VIH y madres de poblaciones de la diversidad, se solicitó la promoción de una iniciativa para que los Ayuntamientos tengan una Unidad de la Diversidad Sexual, como en Solidaridad, que es el único con esta instancia, y que el Gobierno del Estado tenga una Secretaría de la Diversidad Sexual.

“Estuvimos atendiendo la agenda Legislativa pendiente, respecto a lo ya avanzado y lo pendiente que tenemos en la materia, en el terreno local; hablamos del artículo 113 de la Ley de Salud, que criminaliza el tema del VIH, así como que Solidaridad es el único Ayuntamiento que tiene una Unidad para la Atención a la Diversidad Sexual, y ella, como diputada, tiene la posibilidad de presentar una iniciativa para que todos los municipios cuenten con esta figura”, señaló.

“El artículo criminaliza el hecho de la transmisión, cuando es un tema que científicamente no se puede probar; yo no puedo probar que tú me hayas transmitido el VIH porque no existe un mecanismo científico, de laboratorio, que permita saber que fuiste tú y no otra pareja o mis contactos sexuales, ni en qué momento se dio. No hay manera de aplicar ese artículo, está básicamente a interpretación y eso no puede ser en la ley”.

Otro tema que pidieron a la Congresista es la creación de la Unidad de Atención Integral a Poblaciones de la Diversidad Sexual y Niños, Niñas y Adolescentes que requieran atención especializada en endocrinología, que responda a la necesidad de las minorías sociales, como la población trans, a fin de realizar su proceso de transición bajo vigilancia médica, sin poner en peligro su vida y salud.

US: Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) issues resolution on Molecular HIV Surveillance and Cluster Detection

PACHA Unanimously Approves Resolution to Create Safeguards for People Living with HIV

PACHA UNANIMOUSLY APPROVES RESOLUTION TO CREATE SAFEGUARDS FOR PEOPLE LIVING WITH HIV

Directs CDC to Adapt Surveillance Activities to Better Protect Human Rights for Vulnerable Communities

October 18, 2022–PWN commends and applauds the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) for their leadership in unanimously passing an historic resolution that is critical to protecting the human rights and dignity of people living with HIV, the Resolution on Molecular HIV Surveillance and Cluster Detection Response.

This resolution responds to concerns raised by public health officials and community advocates, especially networks of people living with HIV and human rights and data privacy experts, and urges the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to change their guidance on cluster detection and response (CDR) activities. Specifically, the resolution clearly and forcefully recommends that the CDC direct jurisdictions funded for such activities adapt their implementation of CDR to account for local conditions, including health data privacy protections and laws criminalizing people living with HIV.

“Basically, PACHA told the CDC that local context matters: if jurisdictions do not have adequate safeguards to protect the human rights and privacy of people living with HIV, the CDC must allow for a moratorium on CDR activities,” said Kelly Flannery, policy director at Positive Women’s Network-USA. “There is still room to create more robust protections for people living with HIV, such as informed consent standards. Going forward, we must ensure that there are no further developments and integration of new public health surveillance technologies impacting people living with HIV absent community input, oversight, and specifically involvement from networks of PLHIV.”

In the resolution, PACHA also urged CDC to work in partnership with networks of people living with HIV to create a stronger system of informed consent around the use of molecular HIV surveillance data. U.S.-based networks of PLHIV have been sounding the alarm about molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) since 2018, when the federal government first required that states and jurisdictions scale up the use of molecular surveillance technologies and activities as a condition of HIV prevention funding. By 2019, MHS was named one of the core pillars of the federal “End the HIV Epidemic” (EHE) Plan.

“As a result of massive mobilization and outcry by networks of people living with HIV and our allies, yesterday, we finally saw a response addressing community concerns,” said Venita Ray, co-executive director of Positive Women’s Network-USA. “Now it’s time for the CDC to take swift action to implement the recommendations from PACHA and networks of PLHIV.”

This resolution is a tremendous step forward for communities that are dually most impacted by HIV and by surveillance and policing – especially Black, Indigenous and People of Color, migrants, queer and transgender people, people who use drugs, those who work in in the sex trade, and those with the least access to quality, affordable healthcare. We are deeply appreciative to PACHA leadership and to the PACHA Stigma and Disparities Subcommittee for their tremendous efforts in response to concerns from networks of people living with HIV.

Now that it has now been unanimously approved by PACHA, what happens next will speak to the character and integrity of the CDC. Failing to implement these recommendations would represent an egregious breach of public trust. We will be closely monitoring the adoption of these important recommendations throughout the federal response.

The full PACHA resolution is available here.

So many harms, so little benefit: a global review of the history and harms of HIV criminalisation

Last week, The Lancet HIV published an important new advocacy resource – a global review of the history and harms of HIV criminalisation.

So many harms, so little benefit: a global review of the history and harms of HIV criminalisation was co-authored by Joanne Csete (Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health), Richard Elliott (former executive director of the HIV Legal Network and current chair of our Supervisory Board), and Edwin J Bernard (HJN’s executive director and global co-ordinator of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE).

The review summarises key developments in the history of HIV criminalisation and highlights newer research – from the last decade but especially from the last five years – on the public health and human rights impact of HIV criminalisation.

It also summarises expert guidance on the subject, especially as it reflects evolving science, also noting the health and human rights concerns about the application of phylogenetic analysis for molecular surveillance data in the context of HIV criminalisation.

It also explores the impact of HIV criminalisation on different populations – women, sex workers, gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men, Indigenous persons, immigrants and racial minorities.

Finally, it reviews recent significant efforts to limit the impact of HIV criminalisation most of which would have been impossible without advocacy organisations of people living with HIV and their allies.

The review concludes that HIV criminalisation…

“is inconsistent with the human rights-based response to HIV espoused in UN strategies for decades. It adds to the legal and societal burden faced by those who experience discrimination based on race, class, gender, sexual orientation and immigration status as well as criminalization of other kinds. It is enabled by laws and a criminal legal system that in many cases have not caught up with the science of HIV, deploying the machinery of the criminal law as a response to conduct posing little or even no risk of transmission. It punishes people harshly even in cases where no bodily harm can be discerned and where there has been no intent to cause harm – indeed, even in some cases where people have actively sought to eliminate or reduce the risk of others acquiring the virus. It reinforces HIV-related stigma and can discourage people from seeking health services. It is a vehicle for the misuse of phylogenetic evidence and the public health apparatus of molecular surveillance.

“Any benefits of HIV criminalization, which are hard to discern from existing research, must be weighed against the enormous costs of deepening stigma and fear among people living with HIV and of incarceration, coercion and blackmail, police investigation, criminal proceedings, media hysteria, and saddling people with criminal records, sex offender status, or deportation. The myth that HIV criminalization protects women from predatory men should give way to investment in proven measures to address gender-based poverty, violence and discrimination. Financial support for the work of networks of people living with HIV in low- and middle-income countries to document HIV criminal laws and their impact would be useful.

“At a time of reckoning on race in global health, it behooves governments to review, reform and repeal laws that exacerbate the harm that centuries of White colonialism have visited upon racial minorities and Indigenous people. Significantly reducing HIV among sex workers, people who use drugs, criminalized LGBTQI persons, migrants and prisoners remains central to the Global AIDS Strategy and would be helped by eliminating HIV criminalization. And in a time of emerging infectious diseases, HIV criminalization sets a dangerous precedent. The few but dramatic cases of attempted murder charges that have been brought for alleged HIV transmission in the context of rape in South Africa were the closest precedent for attempted murder charges brought against two men who refused quarantine after having tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in 2020. The demonization of COVID-19 “carriers” in too many countries is at least partly a shameful legacy of HIV criminalization.”

So many harms, so little benefit: a global review of the history and harms of HIV criminalisation is available for free download from The Lancet HIV until November 22 2022 by using this link.