A short documentary for the Sero Project produced by Mark S King, written by Christopher King, and edited by Andrew Seger.
Social Science Update: Review of HIV criminalisation research in the US, 1990-2014
An article reviewing 15 years of U.S.-based social science research on HIV criminalisation was published in the September 2016 issue of AIDS and Behavior. The research team, led by Dini Harsono of Yale University’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA), Criminalization of HIV Exposure Work Group, described results from twenty-five research studies conducted in the US from 1990-2014. Studies were conducted with women and men living with HIV, gay men and other men who have sex with men (HIV-positive and –negative), public health workers, and medical providers.
Across the studies, the authors found that, while awareness of HIV exposure laws was generally low, attitudes were generally supportive of criminalisation.[1] The studies showed little to no relationship between the existence of laws and decisions to disclose one’s positive HIV status or to test for HIV. The clearest relationships between stigma and HIV non-disclosure laws could be found from the Sero Project study findings that people living with HIV expect to be treated with bias in the courts simply because of their HIV status. The authors call for future studies to pay more attention to health outcomes, rather than attitudes, and to more closely research prosecution and enforcement practices.
For a global overview of HIV criminalisation research, see O’Byrne et al. (2013). “HIV criminal prosecutions and public health: an examination of the empirical research.”
Details
Criminalization of HIV Exposure: A Review of Empirical Studies in the United States, by Dini Harsono, Carol L. Galletly, Elaine O’Keefe, Zita Lazzarini. AIDS Behavior. DOI 10.1007/s10461-016-1540-5. Published online: 7 Sept 2016.
[1] Although the Sero Project study (2012) was included in the research review, one key set of findings was not discussed. In the Sero Project study, support for criminalisation dramatically declined when survey respondents were provided additional response options (beyond only the choice to support criminalization or not) in survey questions.
Criminalization of HIV Exposure: A Review of Empirical Studies in the United States
Canada: New report explores mainstream Canadian newspaper coverage of HIV non-disclosure criminal cases, highlighting stigmatizing representations of African, Caribbean and Black men living with HIV
Abstract:
This report explores mainstream Canadian newspaper coverage of HIV non-disclosure criminal cases in Canada. It pays particular attention to how defendants’ race and immigration status figure into the newspaper representations of such cases. We empirically enquire into claims that African, Caribbean and Black (ACB) people living with HIV are negatively portrayed and overrepresented in Canadian newspaper stories about HIV non-disclosure cases. Our analysis is based on what, to our knowledge, is the largest data set of news coverage of the issue: a corpus of 1680 English-language Canadian newspaper articles about HIV non-disclosure criminal cases in Canada written between 1 January 1989 and 31 December 2015. Our quantitative and qualitative findings show that Canadian mainstream newspapers are a source of profoundly stigmatizing representations of ACB men living with HIV. For example, Black immigrant men living with HIV are dramatically overemphasized in Canadian mainstream newspaper stories about such cases. While these men account for only 15% of defendants charged they are the focus of 61% of newspaper coverage. Mainstream newspapers rely on forms of language that transfer a long history of exaggerated connections between criminality, race, sex, and otherness to the site of HIV. The result is that ACB men living with HIV are repeatedly represented as dangerous, hypersexual, foreigners who pose a threat to the health and safety of individuals (White women) and, more broadly, the imagined Canadian nation.
The report is available to download here
US: Positive Justice Project Update – October 2016
US: American Association of Nurses in AIDS Care publishes new Clinician Guidelines to HIV Criminalization
ANAC believes HIV criminalization laws and policies promote discrimination and must be reformed. The American Nurses Association (ANA) has co-endorsed ANAC’s position statement opposing HIV criminalization and joined ANAC in calling for the end to unjust laws that criminalize HIV. Thirty three states still have laws criminalizing HIV exposure. These laws fuel stigma by institutionalizing discrimination and are based on outdated beliefs. People living with HIV are still being arrested for HIV exposure. ANAC is a member of the Positive Justice Project, a national coalition to end HIV criminalization in the U.S. Read ANAC’s policy statement calling for the modernization of HIV Criminalization laws.
ANAC, with support from the Elton John AIDS Foundation has developed a downloadable tool: Clinician Guidelines to HIV Criminalization.
Vietnam: Vietnam Lawyers Association (VLA) and Global Fund for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project to provide free legal aid to vulnerable groups in many areas, including civil and criminal issues
The Vietnam Lawyers Association (VLA) and Global Fund for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Project will implement the project on providing free legal aid services to vulnerable groups in HIV/AIDS prevention and control.
The information was given by the VLA at a conference on connection and access to legal support services for vulnerable groups in HIV/AIDS prevention and control recently organized in Hanoi.
The project, supported by the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA), will be implemented in five localities, including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh city, Dong Nai, Quang Ninh and Thai Binh.
It aims to support and guarantee legitimate rights and interests of groups such as injection drug users, prostitutes, homosexuals and transgenders.
Their understanding of law and basic knowledge about HIV/AIDS is limited, leading to stigma and discrimination. Besides, these groups are not beneficiaries of free legal aid under the provisions of the law on legal aid. Therefore, it is essential to build the model of consultation and legal aid free of charge for these groups.
Speaking at the workshop, Doctor and Lawyer Trinh Thi Le Tram, Director of the centre for legal counselling and health policy for HIV/AIDS, said vulnerable people in HIV/AIDS prevention and control include: people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS, injection drug users, prostitutes and homosexuals.
According to Ms. Tram, the number of customers calling the hotline 18001521, requiring counselling on HIV/AIDS and related legislation, continued to increase over the years. In 2009, there were more than 1,900 calls but in 2014, the figure rose to more than 3,000. However, these numbers are still very small compared to the total of more than 200,000 people living with HIV across the country today.
Demand for legal consulting and aid is there in many areas, such as labor, job, marriage and family, criminal and civil issues.
According to Ms. Tram, legal counselling and aid for people living with HIV at state’s centres for legal aid meet many difficulties and shortcomings, such as procedure, identification public issues, and centres are often located within the campus of government agencies with no separate living space.
In addition, interdisciplinary agencies and VLAs of 63 localities nationwide should have activities to consult and support legislation for local people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS.
In particular, the national target program on HIV/AIDS prevention and control every year should structure the budget for the legal consultancy and assistance for people infected with and affected by HIV/AIDS
Video and written reports for
Beyond Blame: Challenging HIV Criminalisation at AIDS 2016
now available
On 17 July 2016, approximately 150 advocates, activists, researchers, and community leaders met in Durban, South Africa, for Beyond Blame: Challenging HIV Criminalisation – a full-day pre-conference meeting preceding the 21st International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2016) to discuss progress on the global effort to combat the unjust use of the criminal law against people living with HIV. Attendees at the convening hailed from at least 36 countries on six continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, Oceania, and South America).
Beyond Blame was convened by HIV Justice Worldwide, an initiative made up of global, regional, and national civil society organisations – most of them led by people living with HIV – who are working together to build a worldwide movement to end HIV criminalisation.
The meeting was opened by the Honourable Dr Patrick Herminie, Speaker of Parliament of the Seychelles, and closed by Justice Edwin Cameron, both of whom gave powerful, inspiring speeches. In between the two addresses, moderated panels and more intimate, focused breakout sessions catalysed passionate and illuminating conversations amongst dedicated, knowledgeable advocates.
WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE MEETING BELOW
A tremendous energising force at the meeting was the presence, voices, and stories of individuals who have experienced HIV criminalisation first-hand. “[They are the] folks who are at the frontlines and are really the heart of this movement,” said Naina Khanna, Executive Director of PWN-USA, from her position as moderator of the panel of HIV criminalisation survivors; “and who I think our work should be most accountable to, and who we should be led by.”
Three survivors – Kerry Thomas and Lieutenant Colonel Ken Pinkela, from the United States; and Rosemary Namubiru, of Uganda – recounted their harrowing experiences during the morning session.
Thomas joined the gathering via phone, giving his remarks from behind the walls of the Idaho prison where he is serving two consecutive 15-year sentences for having consensual sex, with condoms and an undetectable viral load, with a female partner.
Namubiru, a nurse for more than 30 years, was arrested, jailed, called a monster and a killer in an egregious media circus in her country, following unfounded allegations that she exposed a young patient to HIV as the result of a needlestick injury.
Lt. Col. Pinkela’s decades of service in the United States Army have effectively been erased after his prosecution in a case in which there was “no means likely whatsoever to expose a person to any disease, [and definitely not] HIV.”
At the end of the brief question-and-answer period following the often-times emotional panel, Lilian Mworeko of ICW East Africa, in Uganda, took to the microphone with distress in her voice that echoed what most people in the room were likely feeling.
“We are being so polite. I wish we could carry what we are saying here [into] the plenary session of the main conference.”
With that, a call was put to the floor that would reverberate throughout the day, and carry through the week of advocacy and action in Durban.
This excerpt is from the opening of our newly published report, Challenging HIV Criminalisation at the 21st International AIDS Conference, Durban, South Africa, July 2016, written by the meeting’s lead rapporteur, Olivia G Ford, and published by the HIV Justice Worldwide partners.
The report presents an overview of key highlights and takeaways from the convening grouped by the following recurring themes:
- Key Strategies
- Advocacy Tools
- Partnerships and Collaborations
- Adopting an Intersectional Approach
- Avoiding Pitfalls and Unintended Consequences
Supplemental Materials include transcripts of the opening and closing addresses; summaries of relevant sessions at the main conference, AIDS 2016; complete data from the post-meeting evaluation survey; and the full day’s agenda.
Beyond Blame: Challenging HIV Criminalisation at AIDS 2016 by HIV Justice Network on Scribd
HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE releases ‘HIV IS NOT A CRIME’ training academy video documentary
Today, HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE releases a 30-minute video to support advocates on how to effectively strategise on ending HIV criminalisation, filmed at the second-ever ‘HIV IS NOT A CRIME’ meeting, co-organised by Positive Women’s Network – USA and the Sero Project and held earlier this year at the University of Alabama, Huntsville.
This advocacy video distils the content of the three-day training academy into four overarching themes: survivors, victories, intersectionality and community.
Filmed, edited and directed by HIV Justice Network’s video advocacy consultant, Nicholas Feustel, of georgetown media, it features interviews conducted by Mark S King of MyFabulousDisease.com.
“The idea,” says HIV Justice Network’s Global Co-ordinator Edwin J Bernard, who wrote, narrated and produced the video, “is that it can be used as a starting point for discussions at HIV criminalisation strategy meetings around the world, to help advocates move forward with their own state or country plans to achieve HIV justice.”
The video was produced by the HIV Justice Network on behalf of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE, and supported by a grant from the Robert Carr civil society Networks Fund provided to the HIV Justice Global Consortium.
You can share, embed or download the full-length video at: https://youtu.be/B433fMElc_c The video is also being hosted at http://www.hivisnotacrime.com.
HIV IS NOT A CRIME Training Academy (HINAC2)
Huntsville, Alabama
(33 min, HJN, USA, 2016)
HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE presents a video documentary on the second-ever ‘HIV IS NOT A CRIME’ training academy held in Huntsville, Alabama.
To support advocates on how to effectively strategise on ending HIV criminalisation, this 30-minute video distils the content of this unique, three-day training academy into four overarching themes: survivors, victories, intersectionality and community.
We hope this video can be used as a starting point to help advocates move forward in their own state or country plans to achieve HIV justice.
For more information about the training academy visit: http://www.hivisnotacrime.com/
Uganda: ABC Radio interviews HIV criminalisation survivor, Rosemary Namubiru, and UGANET’s Dora Kiconco Musinguzi
This seven minute audio report from AIDS 2016 in Durban is excerpted from ABC Radio’s longer podcast, The brutal politics of a virus that won’t go away, by reporter Natasha Mitchell for Background Briefing.
Listen to and/or download the full podcast and read the transcript on ABC Radio’s website.
The transcript of Natasha’s HIV criminalisation-related report is below.
Natasha Mitchell: In Uganda, around 7% of people are infected, and while the country is recognised for taking decisive action against HIV, the government’s harsh attitude and laws is dramatically undermining that progress.
Rosemary Namubiru is a 66-year-old nurse, mother and grandmother. She found out she had the virus just three years ago, and she thinks she got it from a patient.
Rosemary hadn’t yet disclosed her status at work, but when she was wrongly accused of intentionally infecting a patient, before she knew it the full force of the law was thrown at her.
Rosemary Namubiru: I saw the police coming, and they were holding me, ‘You are under arrest for murder.’ Then they called the media, so when I was in that room they called and told me, ‘Come out.’ I came out and I found a crowd of cameramen, media people.
Natasha Mitchell: Outside the police station?
Rosemary Namubiru: Yes.
Natasha Mitchell: Rosemary was charged with attempted murder after she accidentally pricked herself with a needle while treating a child. The mother watching on was worried and reported Rosemary. While the child wasn’t infected, thankfully, all hell broke loose when Rosemary’s HIV positive status was confirmed and made public. Rosemary was arrested and paraded in front of the media, who labelled her a ‘killer’ and a ‘murderer’.
Rosemary Namubiru: They were trying to manhandle me. They were taking photographs of me. They were calling me all sorts of names, ‘Murderer, killer. Look at this woman, a killer, a murderer.’ And it went all over the country in the national newspapers, in the English newspapers. ‘That murderer, the murderer. If we see her we shall beat her, we shall kill her.’ It was the talk of town. Even my village. Initially, they labelled it as ‘murder’. Then it was reduced, ‘attempted murder’, and then it was eventually changed into ‘negligence’.
Natasha Mitchell: Rosemary was publicly shamed, and sentenced to three years in prison for negligence.
Lawyer Dora Kiconco Musinguzi is the executive director of Uganda Network on Law, Ethics and HIV/AIDS or UGANET.
Dora Kiconco Musinguzi: Rosemary’s story sent so many chills across the country amongst people living with HIV. She was the headline of the news. ‘Killer nurse’. ‘Monster nurse’. She was treated so cruelly at the police, she was beaten, her hair was pulled, right, left, and centre, and that caused a lot of fear among people living with HIV. So we see discrimination written on walls, written in political statements, discrimination is still real, so that is where we are. That’s Uganda’s story currently.
Natasha Mitchell: Rosemary Namubiru was released at the end of 2014 after her case received international attention.
In the same year, Uganda introduced the HIV Prevention and Control Act. At face value it’s about controlling HIV, promoting testing and treatment, and preventing discrimination. Uganda’s not alone here, HIV specific criminal laws are on the increase worldwide, and also exist in America and Europe.
But Dora Kiconco Musinguzi and colleagues are leading a legal challenge in the Ugandan Constitutional Court against key parts of the law, including certain provisions that demand disclosure of your HIV status, and criminalise those who transmit the virus intentionally.
Dora Kiconco Musinguzi: The question is at what point do you establish intention. In a circumstance where we have so many people that have not yet tested, how do you know that a person infected another? So anybody could blame the other for infecting them, and what should be a human condition, a disease, then becomes a criminal object and lives break, and families break, and you know how the media picks on this, and totally takes it out of context. We believe it’s going to be really dangerous.
Natasha Mitchell: At least half of the Ugandan population still don’t know their HIV status. And Dora Kinconco Musinguzi believes the HIV Prevention and Control Act will exacerbate their reluctance to get tested and treated and so cause the virus to spread.
Dora Kiconco Musinguzi: So if people fear, relate HIV testing with obligation, with imprisonment, with undue power of the law, we believe this is going to create a bigger barrier to testing, and that fails the objective of prevention and control because then we shall have more people left out of the treatment area.
Natasha Mitchell: And because pregnant women have to be tested for HIV, they’re at greater risk under this law.
Dora Kiconco Musinguzi: They are going to be found to be HIV positive fast, and if they don’t disclose then they are in the ambit of attempting to transmit, so that makes the women criminals. So there’s lots of unanswered questions. And yet on the other side science has given us hope that people who test and take their medicines very well, they become less infectious, so they don’t transmit HIV. The law neglects this science. The law does not consider what public health specialists are saying, but the Ugandan government has not put this into consideration.
Natasha Mitchell: The experience of Rosemary Namubiru is a cautionary lesson about why laws that criminalise HIV positive people can be so bad for public health.
Dora Kiconco Musinguzi: You shouldn’t be criminalised. These cases could be handled in another way. We are really asking the Constitutional Court to find out whether this is the law that will present and control HIV, and still afford dignity and non-discrimination for living with HIV.
Natasha Mitchell: Based on your experience, Rosemary, what do you feel about the criminalisation law in Uganda against people with HIV?
Rosemary Namubiru: It hurts. Ignorance kills, but it hurts when people just carry on, and people keep on saying, ‘Oh, that one, that one.’ Me, I didn’t get it sexually. It was during the course of saving lives of human beings, so it is not something to laugh about. I wouldn’t wish anybody to go through what I went through.
Natasha Mitchell: Rosemary Namubiru. She’s now retired from nursing.