This 90 minute webinar introduced attendees to some of the concepts and practices highlighted in the Making Media Work for HIV Justice media toolkit, and featured formidable activists, journalists, communications professionals, and human rights defenders working at the intersection of media and HIV criminalisation.
HIV Criminalization in Canada: Testimonials (Alexander McClelland / Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 2018)
http://www.hivcriminalization.ca/testimonials/
New Toolkit Supports Advocates in Using Media to Fight for HIV Justice
When it comes to the widely misunderstood, complex issue of HIV criminalisation, media can be a powerful tool–or a blunt-force weapon.
And so today, as people around the world living with HIV continue to be criminalised and convicted at alarming rates, HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE has released “Making Media Work for HIV Justice: An introduction to media engagement for advocates opposing HIV criminalisation.”
The new resource is the latest addition to the HIV JUSTICE Toolkit, which provides resources from all over the world to assist advocates in approaching a range of advocacy targets, including lawmakers, prosecutors and judges, police, and the media.
The purpose of this critical media toolkit is to inform and equip global grassroots advocates who are engaged in media response to HIV criminalisation–and to demystify the practice of working with, and through, media to change the conversation around criminalisation.
“As advocates work to build community coalitions and consensus about the importance of limiting and ending HIV criminalisation, we need to articulate our common positions to the public and to decision-makers; thus, working with the media is critically important,” says Richard Elliott, Executive Director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and a member of the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE Steering Committee. “Also, particularly in settings where sexual assault laws are used to criminalise people living with HIV, it is important to communicate via the media why this misuse of the criminal law is harmful to women.”
The toolkit provides an introduction to the topic of HIV criminalisation and the importance of engagement with media to change narratives around this unjust practice. The toolkit also includes reporting tips for journalists, designed to educate writers and media makers around the nuances of HIV criminalisation, and the harms of inaccurate and stigmatising coverage.
Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN-USA), the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE Steering Committee member organisation that produced the toolkit, has been working on HIV criminalisation for many years, and was an instrumental part of the coalition that brought HIV criminal law reform to the US state of California.
“With HIV rarely making front page news anymore, the highly sensationalised reporting of criminalisation cases–which most often contains little in the way of facts or science–paints a dehumanising picture of people living with HIV,” says Jennie Smith-Camejo, Communications Director for PWN-USA. “This kind of coverage can and does destroy real lives of those affected by HIV criminalisation laws, while fueling and feeding misinformation and stigma.”
The toolkit also includes a number of case studies providing examples of how media played a significant role in the outcome, or the impetus, of HIV criminalisation advocacy.
“I have been monitoring media coverage of speculations, arrests, prosecutions, and convictions of people living with HIV, and also legal and policy proposals for new laws and/or reform, for more than a decade,” notes Edwin J Bernard, Global Co-ordinator of the HIV Justice Network and a member of the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE coalition. “It’s time for the injustice to end. ‘Making Media Work for HIV Justice’ is a long-overdue welcome addition to the HIV JUSTICE Toolkit, and an important step towards realising a world where people living with HIV are not singled out by the criminal justice system simply for having a virus.“
“Making Media Work for HIV Justice: An introduction to media engagement for advocates opposing HIV criminalisation” was supported by a grant from the Robert Carr Fund for Civil Society Networks. It will also be translated into French, Spanish, and Russian later this year.
Webinar: Making Media Work for HIV Justice
This 90 minute webinar introduced attendees to some of the concepts and practices highlighted in the toolkit, and featured formidable activists, journalists, communications professionals, and human rights defenders working at the intersection of media and HIV criminalisation.
About HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE
HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE is 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. All of the founding partners have worked individually and collectively on HIV criminalisation for a number of years.
HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE is run by a 10-member Steering Committee: AIDS Action Europe / European HIV Legal Forum; AIDS-Free World; AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA); Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network; Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+); HIV Justice Network; International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW); Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN-USA); Sero Project (SERO); and Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC).
To learn more and to join the movement, visit: http://www.hivjusticeworldwide.org.
Download the media release as a pdf here: http://bit.ly/HIVJusticeToolkitMediaRelease
Lawyers for HIV and TB Justice 2018 Training (Johannesburg, 2018)
This playlist contains recordings of a training for lawyers on strategic litigation, legal defense and advocacy on HIV and TB justice from 20-23 February 2018 in Johannesburg, South Africa by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), HIV Justice Worldwide, the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), the Stop TB Partnership, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), and the Kenya Legal & Ethical Issues Network on HIV and AIDS (KELIN). The training was funded under the Africa Regional Grant on HIV: Removing Legal Barriers. Resources and more information on the training are available here: http://www.southernafricalitigationce… With thanks to Nicholas Feustel of Georgetown Media.
Important new resource, SALC’s HIV Criminalisation Defence Case Compendium, published this week
An important new resource for lawyers defending clients and working on strategic litigation was published by the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC) this week. SALC is one of the newest members of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE Steering Committee.
The HIV Criminalisation Defence Case Compendium was developed to accompany a four-day training for lawyers on HIV and TB criminalisation, due to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, later this month.
The Compendium aims to provide lawyers with a tool to successfully defend people living with HIV who are being prosecuted for alleged HIV non-disclosure, exposure, or transmission. It catalogues and analyses criminal cases from across the world where “strong defence arguments have resulted in an acquittal or reduced penalty”.
Cases range from prosecutions for spitting or biting to the landmark 2016 Malawi case of a woman successfully released on appeal after having been sentenced for breastfeeding.
To find pertinent cases quickly and effectively, the Compendium is split into three parts:
- The first section outlines the key issues raised in the judgement, such as proof of intent, and classifies the cases accordingly in an easy to navigate table format.
- The second section, organised by country, catalogues the categories of argument raised by the defence.
- The third section summarises the facts of each case and the Court decisions, highlighting the key points.
The Lawyers for HIV and TB Justice: Strategic Litigation, Legal Defence and Advocacy Training will be streamed live on The Southern Africa Litigation Centre Facebook Page between 20-22 February.
The Compendium can be downloaded from the SALC website and is included as the newest resource in the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE toolkit.
Webinar: PWN-USA HIV Criminalization First Responders Series: Combating Stigmatizing Reporting (PWN-USA, 2018)
The third and final webinar in the First Responder series focuses on working with the media. Hosted by Kamaria Laffrey (Sero) and featuring presentations from Carrie Foote (HIV Modernization Movement, Indiana) and Olivia G Ford (former PWN-USA Comms Dirctor).
US: PJP Update – March 2018
The March 2018 edition of the Positive Justice Project newsletter is available here.
Webinar: PWN-USA HIV Criminalization First Responders Series: Activating Support Networks (PWN-USA, 2018)
The second webinar in the First Responder series focuses on activating support networks for people experiencing HIV criminalization. This webinar covers how to work with local coalitions and organizations, how to create fundraising campaigns, and how to create social support systems that keep people living with HIV who are incarcerated connected to their communities and community resources.
Webinar: PWN-USA HIV Criminalization First Responders Series: Laws, Facts and Policy (PWN-USA, 2018)
The first webinar in PWN-USA’s HIV Criminalization First Responder series included an an overview of respectful, person-first language use, facts about HIV criminalization, and what rights people living with HIV have when they are criminalized. This session also covered how to research state law and policy that impacts people living with HIV. This session featured PWN staff and chapter leaders Barb Cardell and Bonetta Spratley.
African Commission launches report providing framework for an African human rights-based response to HIV
News release: Human Rights organisations applaud African Commission’s launch of HIV report
Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire – On this International Human Rights Day, regional human rights organisations commend the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) on the adoption and launch of the summary version of the Report on the Law and Human Rights in the African Human Rights System: Key Challenges and Opportunities during ICASA 2017 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
The Report was developed by the Commission’s Committee on the Protection of the Rights of People Living with HIV and Those at Risk, Vulnerable to and Affected by HIV (HIV Committee) through a process of extensive consultation and engagement with experts and civil society over a period of two years. This report is the first of its kind. It provides a framework for an African human rights-based response to HIV. It illustrates what human rights law demands of States in the context of HIV, and describes both barriers and good practices for effective rights-based responses. As a body vested with the broad mandate for the protection and promotion of human rights in Africa, it is significant that the Commission is recognising HIV as an urgent and significant human rights concern.
In trying to push for an end to the HIV epidemic, some States in the region continue to propose and implement coercive and punitive solutions that violate human rights. While there have been great strides in new biomedical interventions in the HIV response, the Commission’s Report is a reminder that the end of HIV will not be achieved without human rights at the heart of the response.
“The Commission is a critical instrument for enforcing human rights in Africa. We commend the Commission for its leadership in ensuring that human rights are at the centre of the HIV response. The advancements in medicines for HIV and models of care cannot be of any use unless people’s human rights are respected and structural barriers to accessing HIV care and treatment are removed,” said Michaela Clayton, Director of the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA).
“Through the Report, the Commission affirms the obligation of States to promote non-discrimination particularly, discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity; and to address the systemic violations of the rights of key populations and marginalised groups in particular, the right to health which exacerbates vulnerability to HIV ,” says Humphrey Ndondo, Executive Director of the African Men for Sexual Health and Rights (AMSHeR).
“We hope that the Report will guide the Commission, States, and other stakeholders, in their decision making,” said Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, Executive Director of the Southern Africa Litigation Centre. “We call on States to engage with this important Report, and take note of both the barriers and good practices described.”
International Human Rights Day, marked on 10 December, must serve as a reminder of the importance of human rights when addressing HIV. It is a day where society should not only celebrate human rights, but keep in mind the long road ahead and the continuing human rights challenges that must be addressed if we are to end AIDS as a public health threat.
ENDS
For more info:
Lesley Odendal, Communications Lead, AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA): communications@arasa.info, +27 72 960 8991
Annabel Raw, Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC): annabelr@salc.org.za, +27 10 596 8538
See www.achpr.org for more about the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and the report.