In this issue:
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 These laws fuel stigma by institutionalizing discrimination and are based on outdated beliefs.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.
Global advocacy highlights against HIV criminalisation presented at AIDS 2016
Yesterday, at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, the HIV Justice Network and GNP+ presented highlights relating to global advocacy against HIV criminalisation based on updated research from our Advancing HIV Justice 2 report.
Advancing HIV Justice: Building momentum in global advocacy against HIV criminalisation Download the pdf here
Background
HIV criminalisation impacts public health and human rights, undermining efforts to end AIDS. The unjust application of criminal law to people living with HIV based solely on their HIV status, either via HIV-specific criminal statutes, or by applying general criminal laws, is a growing, global phenomenon.
Description
A desk review of criminal proceeding reports and legal texts curated on the HIV Justice Network website as part of the research for the Advancing HIV Justice 2 report supplemented with data from GNP+ ́s Global Criminalisation Scan and Google searches. Recently reported data so far covers March 2013-September 2015 but will be updated to July 2016.
Lessons learned
Key developments in case law and law and policy reform have taken place in numerous jurisdictions, most of which came about as a direct result of advocacy from individuals and organisations working to end the inappropriate use of the criminal law to regulate and punish people living with HIV. However, a complex picture emerges of advocacy successes and proposed laws in some of the same countries/regions of the world suggesting disparate approaches to HIV criminalisation that are sensitive to local social, cultural, epidemiological and political contexts, as well as the capacity of advocates to challenge such laws and prosecutions. Although the evidence base against HIV criminalisation is strong, evidence alone is often not enough for policy- and lawmakers who want to be seen to be doing something to impact the HIV epidemic and who may be more swayed by emotive or ́popular ́arguments rather than implement a rational, evidence-based response.
Conclusions/Next steps
Despite a growing number of advocacy successes leading to improved legal environments for people living with HIV, much more work is required to strengthen advocacy capacity to ensure a more just, rational, evidence-informed criminal justice response to HIV that will benefit both public health and human rights.
Advancing HIV Justice: Building momentum in global advocacy against HIV criminalisation
HIV Justice Network presents important new HIV criminalisation data today at AIDS 2016
Today, at the International AIDS Conference in Durban, the HIV Justice Network and GNP+ will present important new data on HIV criminalisation based on updated research from our Advancing HIV Justice 2 report.
Global Trends in HIV Criminalisation (Download the pdf here)
HIV criminalisation is a growing, global phenomenon that is seldom given the attention it deserves considering its impact on both public health and human rights, undermining the HIV response.
In many instances, HIV criminalisation laws are exceedingly broad – either in their explicit wording, or in the way they have been interpreted and applied – making people living with HIV (and those perceived by authorities to be at risk of HIV) extremely vulnerable to a wide range of human rights violations.
Seventy-two countries currently have HIV-specific laws, rising to 101 jurisdictions when individual US states are included. Notably, 30 countries in Africa have such laws, including new overly-broad laws in Uganda (2014) and Nigeria (2015).
At least 61 countries have reported HIV-related criminal cases. This total increases to 105 jurisdictions when individual US states and Australian states/territories are counted separately.
However, not all countries have enforced HIV-specific laws and other countries have applied general laws: 32 applied general or public health laws, 26 used HIV-specific laws and 3 (Australia, Denmark and United States) have applied both.
During the 30-month period: April 2013 to October 2015, we found reports of at least 313 arrests, prosecutions and/or convictions in 28 countries.
The highest number of cases during this period were reported in:
• Russia (at least 115);
• United States of America (at least 104);
• Belarus (at least 20);
• Canada (at least 17);
• France (at least 7);
• United Kingdom (at least 6);
• Italy (at least 6);
• Australia (at least 5); and
• Germany (at least 5).
BEYOND BLAME
Challenging HIV Criminalisation @ AIDS 2016, Durban
(29 min, HJN, South Africa, 2016)
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