Verdict on a Virus (IPPF, UK, 2011)

This short film produced by The International Planned Parenthood Federation is a commentary from a selection of experts about the criminalisation of HIV transmission in England and Wales. It brings together a selection of policy makers, programmers, advocates, academics and people living with HIV to inform the public debate.

New report explores implications of tests to estimate timing of HIV infection for criminal prosecutions

From UNAIDS front page today.

 

Feature Story: New report explores implications of tests to estimate timing of HIV infection for criminal prosecutions

The UK charity National AIDS Trust (NAT) launched a report on 4 August 2011, entitled Estimating the likelihood of recent HIV infection – implications for criminal prosecution, which explores the validity and meaning of the Recent Infection Testing Algorithm HIV tests, or RITA tests, within the context of criminal prosecutions of HIV transmission.

The report, primarily aimed at professionals working in the criminal justice system and HIV specialists who may be called on as expert witnesses in criminal HIV transmission cases, calls for caution about the potential use of RITA results to determine timing of HIV infection.

About RITA and its potential use in criminal law context

RITA tests estimate the likelihood that a person found to be HIV-positive has been infected recently, usually within the previous six months. To date, the United Kingdom is the only country reported to routinely return RITA results to newly diagnosed patients.

As criminal law in the UK allows for the prosecution of people for transmitting HIV to another person, the report underlines the importance that RITA tests and their limitations be fully understood and not misused in criminal proceedings. The report underlines that while there have been no reported instances of use of RITA results in courts to attempt to prove timing of HIV transmission and consequently the identity of the person who transmitted HIV, this may happen in the near future.

No test can conclusively state when an individual acquired HIV

“No scientific test is able to conclusively state when an individual acquired HIV,” said Dr Cate Hankins, Chief Scientific Adviser to UNAIDS. “It is important to be cautious, follow clear protocol, and understand the limitations of RITA results when delivering them to patients or using them within a criminal law context.”

According to the report, proving HIV transmission in the context of criminal law cases requires the use of a combination of scientific evidence, medical records and testimony to establish the facts, timing and direction of HIV transmission.

“Scientific advances such as RITA testing are extremely welcome when estimating the recency of HIV infection on a population level, especially as late diagnosis is a huge issue,” said Ms Deborah Jack, Chief Executive of National AIDS Trust. “However, it is crucial that the limitations of RITA tests are fully understood and are not used out of context, for example during criminal proceedings.”

As RITA tests are designed to work at the population level (based on averages) rather than at the individual level, taking into account significant rates of false RITA test results in individuals, the report draws the conclusion that RITA tests are not reliable as evidence of recent HIV infection for individuals in the context of criminal proceedings.

Better understanding of HIV science in the context of criminal law

The NAT report comes weeks ahead of an expert meeting on the scientific, medical, legal and human rights aspects of the criminalization of HIV transmission and exposure organized by UNAIDS in Geneva from 31 August to 2 September 2011.

The meeting will bring together leading scientists and medical experts on HIV together with legal and human rights experts. Participants will examine relevant scientific and legal evidence and concepts relating, among others, to harm, risk, intent and proof, and their conceptualization/application in the context of criminalization of HIV exposure and transmission.

The meeting is part of UNAIDS’ work towards halving the number of countries with punitive laws and practices around HIV transmission, sex work, drug use, or homosexuality that block effective AIDS responses by 2015.

UNAIDS announces new project examining “best available scientific evidence to inform the criminal law”

A new project announced yesterday by UNAIDS will “further investigate current scientific, medical, legal and human rights aspects of the criminalization of HIV transmission. This project aims to ensure that the application, if any, of criminal law to HIV transmission or exposure is appropriately circumscribed by the latest and most relevant scientific evidence and legal principles so as to guarantee justice and protection of public health.”

I’m honoured to be working as a consultant on this project, and although I can’t currently reveal any more details than in the UNAIDS article (full text below), suffice to say it is hoped that this project will make a huge difference to the way that lawmakers, law enforcement and the criminal courts treat people with HIV accused of non-disclosure, alleged exposure and non-intentional transmission.

The UNAIDS article begins by noting some positive developments previously highlighted on my blog, including Denmark’s suspension of its HIV-specific law.  It’s not too late to sign on to the civil society letter asking the Danish Government to not to simply rework the law, but to abolish it altogether by avoiding singling out HIV. So far, well over 100 NGOs from around the world have signed the letter.

The article also mentions recent developments in Norway. In fact, the UNAIDS project is funded by the Government of Norway, which has set up its own independent commission to inform the ongoing revision of Section 155 of the Penal Code, which criminalises the wilful or negligent infection or exposure to communicable disease that is hazardous to public health—a law that has only been used to prosecute people who are alleged to have exposed others, to, and/or transmitted, HIV.  It will present its findings by October 2012.

As well as highlighting some very positive recent developments in the United States – the National AIDS Strategy’s calls for HIV-specific criminal statutes that “are consistent with current knowledge of HIV transmission and support public health approaches” and the recent endorsement of these calls by the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) – it also focuses on three countries in Africa.

Positive developments have also been reported in Africa. In the past year, at least three countries—Guinea, Togo and Senegal—have revised their existing HIV-related legislation or adopted new legislation that restrict the use of the criminal law to exceptional cases of intentional transmission of HIV.

I’d like to add a few more countries to the “positive development” list.

Canada
Last September, I spoke at two meetings, in Ottawa and Toronto, that officially launched the Ontario Working Group on Criminal Law and HIV Exposure’s Campaign for Prosecutorial Guidelines for HIV Non-disclosure.

The Campaign’s rationale is as follows

We believe that the use of criminal law in cases of HIV non-disclosure must be compatible with broader scientific, medical, public health, and community efforts to prevent the spread of HIV and to provide care treatment and support to people living with HIV. While criminal prosecutions may be warranted in some circumstances, we view the current expansive use of criminal law with concern.

We therefore call on Ontario’s Attorney General to immediately undertake a process to develop guidelines for criminal prosecutors in cases involving allegations of non-disclosure of HIV status.

Guidelines are needed to ensure that HIV-related criminal complaints are handled in a fair and non-discriminatory manner. The guidelines must ensure that decisions to investigate and prosecute such cases are informed by a complete and accurate understanding of current medical and scientific research about HIV and take into account the social contexts of living with HIV.

We call on Ontario’s Attorney General to ensure that people living with HIV, communities affected by HIV, legal, public health and scientific experts, health care providers, and AIDS service organizations are meaningfully involved in the process to develop such guidelines.

Last month, Xtra.ca reported that

The office of the attorney general confirms it is drafting guidelines for cases of HIV-positive people who have sex without disclosing their status.

This is a major breakthrough, but the campaign still needs your support. Sign their petition here.

By the way, video of the Toronto meeting, ‘Limiting the Law: Silence, Sex and Science’, is now online.

Australia
Also last month, the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) produced an excellent discussion paper/advocacy kit, ‘HIV, Crime and the Law in Australia: Options for Policy Reform‘.

As well as providing an extensive and detailed overview regarding the current (and past) use of criminal and public health laws in its eight states and territories, it also provides the latest data on number, scope and demographics of prosecutions in Australia.

There have been 31 prosecutions related to HIV exposure or transmission in Australia over almost twenty years. Of those, a number have been dropped pre-trial, and in four cases the accused has pleaded guilty. All those charged were male, except for one of two sex workers (against whom charges were dropped pretrial in 1991). In cases where the gender of the victim(s) is/are known, 16 have involved the accused having sex with female persons (one of those cases involves assault against minors) and 10 involved the accused having sex with men. This suggests that heterosexual men, who constitute only about 15% of people diagnosed with HIV, are over-represented among the small number of people charged with offences relating to HIV transmission. Further, men of African origin are over-represented among those prosecuted (7 of 30), given the small size of the African-Australian community.

It then systematically examines, in great detail, the impact of such prosections in Australia.

These include:

  1. HIV-related prosecutions negate public health mutual responsibility messages
  2. HIV-related prosecutions fail to fully consider the intersection of risk and harm
  3. HIV-related prosecutions ignore the reality that failure to disclose HIVstatus is not extraordinary
  4. HIV-related prosecutions reduce trust in healthcare practitioners
  5. HIV-related prosecutions increase stigma against people living with HIV
  6. HIV-related prosecutions are unacceptably arbitrary
  7. HIV-related prosecutions do not decrease HIV transmission risks
  8. HIV-related prosecutions that result in custodial sentences increase the population of HIV-positive people in custodial settings

It notes, however, that

There is a narrow category of circumstances in which prosecutions may be warranted, involving deliberate and malicious conduct, where a person with knowledge of their HIVstatus engages in deceptive conduct that leads to HIV being transmitted to a sexual partner. A strong, cohesive HIV response need not preclude HIV-related prosecutions per se. Further work is required by those working in the areas of HIV and of criminal law:

  • To consider what circumstances of HIV transmission should be defined as criminal;
  • To define what measures need to be put in place to ensure that prosecutions are a last resort option and that public health management options have been considered; and
  • To ensure those understandings are part of an ongoing dialogue that informs the development of an appropriate criminal law and public health response.

 That’s exactly the kind of policy outcome that UNAIDS is hoping for.

In the meantime, AFAO suggests some possible strategies towards policy reform. Their recommendations make an excellent advocacy roadmap for anyone working to end the inappropriate use of the criminal law.

Their suggestions include:

  • Enable detailed discussion and policy development
  • Develop mechanisms to learn more about individual cases
  • Prioritise research on the intersection of public health and criminal law mechanism, including addressing over-representation of African-born accused

  • Work with police, justice agencies, state-based agencies and public health officials
  • Improve judges’ understanding of HIV and work with expert witnesses
  • Work with correctional authorities
  • Work with media

I truly hope that the recent gains by advocates in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Guinea, Norway, Togo, Senegal and the United States is the beginning of the end of the overly broad use of the criminal law to inappropriately regulate, control, criminalise and stigmatise people with HIV in the name of justice or public health.

The full UNAIDS article is below.  I’ll update you on the project’s progress just as soon as I can.

Countries questioning laws that criminalize HIV transmission and exposure

26 April 2011

On 17 February 2011, Denmark’s Minister of Justice announced the suspension of Article 252 of the Danish Criminal Code. This law is reportedly the only HIV-specific criminal law provision in Western Europe and has been used to prosecute some 18 individuals.

A working group has been established by the Danish government to consider whether the law should be revised or abolished based on the best available scientific evidence relating to HIV and its transmission.

This development in Denmark is not an exception. Last year, a similar official committee was created in Norway to inform the ongoing revision of Section 155 of the Penal Code, which criminalises the wilful or negligent infection or exposure to communicable disease that is hazardous to public health—a law that has only been used to prosecute people transmitting HIV.

In the United States, the country with the highest total number of reported prosecutions for HIV transmission or exposure, the National AIDS Strategy adopted in July 2010 also raised concerns about HIV-specific laws that criminalize HIV transmission or exposure. Some 34 states and 2 territories in the US have such laws. They have resulted in high prison sentences for HIV-positive people being convicted of “exposing” someone to HIV after spitting on or biting them, two forms of behaviour that carry virtually no risk of transmission.

In February 2011, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), the organization representing public health officials that administer state and territorial HIV programmes, expressed concerns about the “corrosive impact” of overly-broad laws criminalizing HIV transmission and exposure. The AIDS Directors called for the repeal of laws that are not “grounded in public health science” as such laws discourage people from getting tested for HIV and accessing treatment.

Positive developments have also been reported in Africa. In the past year, at least three countries—Guinea, Togo and Senegal—have revised their existing HIV-related legislation or adopted new legislation that restrict the use of the criminal law to exceptional cases of intentional transmission of HIV.

Best available scientific evidence to inform the criminal law

These developments indicate that governments are also calling for a better understanding of risk, harm and proof in relation to HIV transmission, particularly in light of scientific and medical evidence that the infectiousness of people receiving anti-retroviral treatment can be significantly reduced.

To assist countries in the just application of criminal law in the context of HIV, UNAIDS has initiated a project to further investigate current scientific, medical, legal and human rights aspects of the criminalization of HIV transmission. This project aims to ensure that the application, if any, of criminal law to HIV transmission or exposure is appropriately circumscribed by the latest and most relevant scientific evidence and legal principles so as to guarantee justice and protection of public health. The project, with support from the Government of Norway, will focus on high income countries where the highest number of prosecutions for HIV infection or exposure has been reported.

The initiative will consist of two expert meetings to review scientific, medical, legal and human rights issues related to the criminalization of HIV transmission or exposure. An international consultation on the criminalization of HIV transmission and exposure in high income countries will also be organized.

The project will further elaborate on the principles set forth in the Policy brief on the criminalization of HIV transmission issued by UNAIDS and UNDP in 2008. Its findings will be submitted to the UNDP-led Global Commission on HIV and the Law, which was launched by UNDP and UNAIDS in June 2010.

As with any law reform related to HIV, UNAIDS urges governments to engage in reform initiatives which ensure the involvement of all those affected by such laws, including people living with HIV.

US: State public health officials condemn ‘stigmatising, harmful’ HIV-specific laws

This weekend, the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD) released a statement that signifies an extremely important development in the Positive Justice Project’s campaign to repeal HIV-specific criminal laws in the United States.

NASTAD is a highly-respected organisation of public health officials that administer state and territorial HIV prevention and care programmes throughout the US.

Its motto is: ‘Bridging Science, Policy, and Public Health’.

The message of their statement is simple: repeal these laws because

HIV criminalization undercuts our most basic HIV prevention and sexual health messages, and breeds ignorance, fear and discrimination against people living with HIV.

In order to work towards the goal of repealing laws that create HIV-specific crimes or increased penalties for persons who are HIV-positive and convicted of criminal offences, NASTAD will

advocate at the national level to raise awareness of this urgent issue. Realizing the vision of the NHAS is predicated on a strong foundation of public health science and practice void of stigma and discrimination. Instead of applying criminal law to HIV transmission, state and local governments should expand programs to reduce HIV transmission while protecting the human rights of people living with HIV.

Further, NASTAD encourages its members to:

  • Support the maintenance of confidentiality of HIV test and medical records in order to encourage and support individuals to be tested, learn their status and enter services if positive;
  • Identify and share best practices related to successes in repeal of policies and/or laws and statutes in jurisdictions that are not grounded in public health science; Promote public education and understanding of the stigmatizing impact and negative public health consequences of criminalization statutes and prosecutions;
  • Provide unequivocal public health leadership on the relative risks of transmission and the dangers of a punitive response to HIV exposure on the epidemic.

Todd Heywood of the Michigan Messenger reports that US HIV advocates – including the National Association of People with AIDS (NAPWA) and the Positive Justice Project’s Senior Advisor, Sean Strub – have warmly welcomed NASTAD’s statement.  Read his report at the Michigan Messenger here.

The full text of the statement, below, can also be downloaded as a pdf.

NATIONAL HIV/AIDS STRATEGY IMPERATIVE: FIGHTING STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION BY REPEALING HIV-SPECIFIC CRIMINAL STATUTES

The National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors (NASTAD), the organization which represents the public health officials that administer state and territorial HIV/AIDS and adult viral hepatitis prevention and care programs nationwide is gravely concerned about the corrosive impact of sustained stigma and discrimination on state, federal and local efforts to combat HIV/AIDS in the United States. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) provides an unprecedented strategic blueprint for reducing HIV/AIDS incidence through the scale-up of interdisciplinary, impactful prevention approaches. NASTAD acknowledges that the NHAS is not a magic bullet; however, the NHAS’ central vision of the U.S. becoming “a place where new HIV infections are rare” cannot be realized until the nation aggressively responds to the core of the matter: pervasive and unmitigated stigma and discrimination against people living HIV/AIDS that diminishes our best efforts to combat one of the greatest public health challenges of our time.

As a member of the Positive Justice Project, a coordinated national effort to address “HIV criminalization” statutes – laws that create HIV-specific crimes or which increase penalties for persons who are HIV positive and convicted of criminal offenses – NASTAD supports efforts to examine and support level-headed, proven public health approaches that end punitive laws that single out HIV over other STDs and that impose penalties for alleged nondisclosure, exposure and transmission that are severely disproportionate to any actual resulting harm. Steps identified to reach this goal in the Federal Implementation Plan include step 3.3, Promote public health approaches to HIV prevention and care which states that “state legislatures should consider reviewing HIV-specific criminal statutes to ensure that they are consistent with current knowledge of HIV transmission and support public health approaches to screening for, preventing and treating HIV.” In addition, step 3.4, Strengthen enforcement of civil rights laws requires an examination and report by the Department of Justice on HIV-specific sentencing laws and implications for people living with HIV.

HIV criminalization has often resulted in egregious human rights violations, including harsh sentencing for behaviors that pose little to no risk of HIV transmission. Thirty- four states (34) and two (2) U.S. territories explicitly criminalize HIV exposure through sex, shared needles or, in some states, exposure to “bodily fluids” that can include saliva. Examples include:

 

  • A man with HIV in Arkansas was sentenced to 12 years (and must register as a sex offender after release) when he failed to disclose his status with his girlfriend and another woman – both women tested negative;

 

 

  • A man with HIV in Iowa, who had an undetectable viral load, was sentenced to 25 years after a one-time sexual encounter during which he used a condom;

 

 

  • A woman with HIV in Georgia, who was sentenced to eight years imprisonment   for failing to disclose her viral status, despite it having been published on the front page of the local newspaper and two witnesses who testified her sexual partner was aware of her HIV positive status.

 

In none of the cases cited was HIV transmitted. In fact, most prosecutions are not for transmission, but for the failure to disclose one’s HIV status prior to intimate contact, which in most cases comes down to competing stories about verbal consent that are nearly impossible to prove.

HIV criminalization undercuts our most basic HIV prevention and sexual health messages, and breeds ignorance, fear and discrimination against people living with HIV. NASTAD members commit to examining existing public health policies related to HIV criminalization that may exacerbate stigma and discrimination and lessen the likelihood that individuals will learn their HIV status. NASTAD members will also continue to emphasize the importance of providing comprehensive prevention and care services for HIV positive individuals to help reduce the risk of transmission to others. In conjunction with new and existing partners, our members also pledge to:

 

  • Support the maintenance of confidentiality of HIV test and medical records in order to encourage and support individuals to be tested, learn their status and enter services if positive;

 

 

  • Identify and share best practices related to successes in repeal of policies and/or laws and statutes in jurisdictions that are not grounded in public health science; Promote public education and understanding of the stigmatizing impact and negative public health consequences of criminalization statutes and prosecutions;

 

 

  • Provide unequivocal public health leadership on the relative risks of transmission and the dangers of a punitive response to HIV exposure on the epidemic.

 

NASTAD will continue to advocate at the national level to raise awareness of this urgent issue. Realizing the vision of the NHAS is predicated on a strong foundation of public health science and practice void of stigma and discrimination. Instead of applying criminal law to HIV transmission, state and local governments should expand programs to reduce HIV transmission while protecting the human rights of people living with HIV.

Approved by NASTAD’s Executive Committee: February 2011

Legalizing Stigma (In The Life Media, US, 2010)

More than 30 US states have laws criminalizing HIV exposure, transmission or non-disclosure of an individual’s HIV status. IN THE LIFE looks at the stigma and misinformation embedded in laws meant to curb the spread of the disease and the human cost among those who are HIV positive. Includes footage from the New York launch of the Positive Justice Project.

US: Positive Justice Project publishes essential new advocacy resource

The Center for HIV Law and Policy has released the first comprehensive analysis of HIV-specific criminal laws and prosecutions in the United States. The publication, Ending and Defending Against HIV Criminalization: State and Federal Laws and Prosecutions, covers policies and cases in all fifty states, the military, federal prisons and U.S. territories.

Ending and Defending Against HIV Criminalization: State and Federal Laws and Prosecutions is intended as a resource for lawyers and community advocates on the laws, cases, and trends that define HIV criminalization in the United States. Thirty-four states and two U.S. territories have HIV-specific criminal statutes and thirty-six states have reported proceedings in which HIV-positive people have been arrested and/or prosecuted for consensual sex, biting, and spitting. At least eighty such prosecutions have occurred in the last two years alone.

People are being imprisoned for decades, and in many cases have to register as sex offenders, as a consequence of exaggerated fears about HIV. Most of these cases involve consensual sex or conduct such as spitting and biting that has only a remote possibility of HIV exposure. For example, a number of states have laws that make it a felony for someone who has had a positive HIV test to spit on or touch another person with blood or saliva. Some examples of recent prosecutions discussed in CHLP’s manual include:

• A man with HIV in Texas is serving thirty-five years for spitting at a police officer;

• A man with HIV in Iowa, who had an undetectable viral load, received a twenty-five year sentence after a one-time sexual encounter during which he used a condom; his sentence was suspended, but he had to register as a sex-offender and is not allowed unsupervised contact with his nieces, nephews and other young children;

• A woman with HIV in Georgia received an eight-year sentence for failing to disclose her HIV status, despite the trial testimony of two witnesses that her sexual partner was aware of her HIV positive status;

• A man with HIV in Michigan was charged under the state’s anti-terrorism statute with possession of a “biological weapon” after he allegedly bit his neighbor.

The catalog of state and federal laws and cases is the first volume of a multi-part manual that CHLP’s Positive Justice Project is developing for legal and community advocates. The goal of the Positive Justice Project is to bring an end to laws and policies that subject people with HIV to arrest and increased punishment on the basis of gross ignorance about the nature and transmission of HIV, without consideration of the actual risks of HIV exposure.

The manual’s completion was supported by grants for CHLP’s anti-criminalization work and Positive Justice Project from the MAC AIDS Fund and Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Download the manual here (2.3MB)

Global: HIV and the criminal law book now available; hear me speak in Ottawa and Toronto

The next few weeks sees my involvement in a flurry of anti-criminalisation advocacy in the United States and Canada, coinciding with the publication of the book version of the new international resource I produced for NAM and an article in HIV Treatment Update summarising the current global situation.

HIV and the Criminal Law

Email: info@nam.org.uk to order a copy

Preface by The Hon. Michael Kirby AC CMG and Edwin Cameron, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. 

Introduction How this resource addresses the criminalisation of HIV exposure and transmission.

Fundamentals An overview of the global HIV pandemic, and the role of human rights and the law in the international response to HIV.

Laws A  history of the criminalisation of HIV exposure and transmission, and a brief explanation of the kinds of laws used to do this.

Harm Considers the actual and perceived impact of HIV on wellbeing, how these inform legislation and the legal construction of HIV-related harm.

Responsibility Looks at two areas of responsiblity for HIV prevention: responsibility for HIV-related sexual risk-taking and responsibility to disclose a known HIV-positive status to a sexual partner.

Risk An examination of prosecuted behaviours, using scientific evidence to determine actual risk, and how this evidence has been applied in jurisdictions worldwide.

Proof Foreseeability, intent, causality and consent are key elements in establishing criminal culpability. The challenges and practice in proving these in HIV exposure and transmission cases.

Impact An assessment of the impact of criminalisation and HIV – on individuals, communities, countries and the course of the global HIV epidemic.

Details: international resource and individual country data A summary of laws, prosecutions and responses to criminalisation of HIV exposure or transmission internationally, and key sources of more information. 


HIV Treatment Update

The August/September issue of NAM’s newsletter, HIV Treatment Update, features a 2500 word article, ‘Where HIV is a Crime, Not Just a Virus’, that examines the current state of criminalisation internationally.

Here’s the first part: click on the image to download the complete article.

Since 1987, when prosecutions in Germany, Sweden and the United States were first recorded, an increasing number of countries around the world have applied existing criminal statutes or created HIV-specific criminal laws to prosecute people living with HIV who have, or are believed to have, put others at risk of acquiring HIV.

Most of the prosecutions have been for consensual sexual acts, with a minority for behaviour such as biting and spitting.

In the majority of these cases, HIV transmission did not occur; rather, someone was exposed to the risk of acquiring HIV without expressly being informed by the person living with HIV that there was a risk of HIV exposure.

In the cases where someone did test positive for HIV, proof that the defendant intended to harm them and/or was the source of the infection has often been less than satisfactory.

South Africa’s openly HIV-positive Constitutional Court Justice, Edwin Cameron, called for a global campaign against criminalisation at the 17th International AIDS Conference in Mexico City in 2008, declaring: “HIV is a virus, not a crime.”

Two years later, the discussion for people working in the HIV sector has moved on from a debate about whether such laws and prosecutions are good or bad public policy to one on how to turn the tide and mitigate the harm of criminalisation. Most of them advocate, in the long term, for decriminalisation of all acts other than clearly intentional HIV transmission. This, however, is a debate that many people outside the HIV sector have yet to even start.

The Positive Justice Project

Next Tuesday, September 21st, I’ll be joining a group of US anti-criminalisation advocates for a meeting in New York to discuss how to move towards mitigating the harm of US disclosure laws and prosecutions for HIV exposure and non-intentional transmission.

The goals of the Positive Justice Project campaign include:

  • Broader public understanding of the stigmatizing impact and other negative public health consequences of criminalization and other forms of discrimination against people with HIV that occur under the guise of addressing HIV transmission.
  • Community consensus on the appropriate use of criminal and civil law in the context of the HIV epidemic.
  • Clear statements from lead government officials on the causes and relative risks of HIV transmission and the dangers of a criminal enforcement response to HIV exposure and the epidemic.
  • A broader, more effective community-level response to the ongoing problem of HIV-related arrests and prosecutions.
  • Reduction and eventual elimination of the inappropriate use of criminal and civil punishments against people with HIV.

Ottawa: September 29th 6pm-8pm

Click on the flyer to download

I’ll be in Canada’s capital, Ottawa, on Wednesday September 29th to speak about my experiences of blogging on criminalisation worldwide, and to provide examples of international anti-criminalisation advocacy that Canadian advocates might find useful in their fight against the ramping up of charges for non-disclosure and the irrational and scare-mongering response to accusations of non-disclosure from law enforcement.

Ottawa has become ground zero for anti-criminalisation advocacy in recent months following the arrest and public naming and shaming of a gay man for non-disclosure. Following community outrage at the man’s treatment, the Ottawa Police Service Board rejected calls to develop guidelines for prosecution for HIV non-disclosure cases.

The meeting will also feature several leading lights in Canadian, if not global, anti-criminalisation advocacy: Richard Elliott, Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network; HIV-positive advocate David Hoe; and Eric Mykhalovskiy, Associate Professor at York University, Department of Sociology.

Toronto: September 30th 6.30pm-8.30pm

Click on image for link to Facebook event page

The following day, Richard, Eric, myself and a fourth panellist (TBC) will be presenting at Silence, Sex and Science, Thursday, September 30, 2010, 6:30 to 8:30 pm at Oakham House, 55 Gould Street, Toronto.

I hope to meet any blog readers who can make it to either of the Canadian meetings, and will, of course, be posting more about these meetings in the future.