Source: member The International HIV/AIDS Alliance warned today that Uganda’s “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” would have a disastrous impact on the country’s HIV response if it becomes law. The Ugandan Parliament is poised to pass a bill which would see any person alleged to be homosexual at risk of life imprisonment.
New law will not include 'aggravated homosexuality' death penalty for gay men with HIV
Uganda will pass a new law against homosexuality by the end of 2012 as a “Christmas gift” to its advocates, the speaker of parliament has said. The AP news agency quoted Rebecca Kadaga as saying that Ugandans were “demanding” the law. The bill, tabled by MP David Bahati, proposes jail terms for homosexual acts, including a life sentence in certain circumstances. It prohibits the “promotion” of gay rights and calls for the punishment of anyone who “funds or sponsors homosexuality” or “abets homosexuality”.But a clause which calls for the death penalty against people found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a “serial offender” – is to be dropped, Mr Bahati has said.
Dr. Shereen El Feki hopes that legal environment will improve following Global Commission report
This myriad of laws, across multiple legal systems, has one thing in common: by punishing those who have HIV, or the practices that may leave them vulnerable to infection, such laws simply serve to drive people further from disclosure, testing and treatment—fostering, not fighting, the global epidemic. It is time to say, “No more.” Just as we need new science to help fight the viral epidemic, we need new thinking to combat an epidemic of bad laws that is undermining the precious gains made in HIV awareness, prevention and treatment over the past thirty years.
Teens born with HIV not telling partners
A significant number of sexually active U.S. teens who were born with HIV either didn’t know their own status when they started having sex, or they knew it but didn’t disclose it to their first sex partners, a new study says.
Malawi sex workers form alliance following forced HIV tests, disclosure
BLANTYRE–Malawi’s estimated 20,000 sex workers have formed an alliance to fight for their interests and social justice, a lawyer representing them has said, two years after 14 prostitutes sued police and the government for forced HIV tests.
Kenya: HIV, Law and Human Rights symposium calls for repeal of Aids Control Act (Section 24)
- The inaugural national symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights opened on Tuesday in Nairobi with calls on the Government to repeal the law which criminalises infecting a person who did not have the virus
- HIV Equity Tribunal chairman Ambrose Rachier termed the Aids Control Act (Section 24) “counter-productive”, saying it will make people shun HIV testing
- According to the law, Mr Rachier said those who wilfully infected others with HIV faced “stiff penalties” of up to seven years in jail
More criminalization, further marginalization: Supreme Court's HIV non-disclosure decisions create viral underclass |
This is the second in a series of blog posts about the recent Supreme Court of Canada decisions about the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. See the first post here, in which we wrote about the perverse, negative impacts of the decision for women living with HIV.
US: Scott A. Schoettes of Lambda Legal outlines the battle being waged in U.S. courts over HIV criminalisation in POZ Magazine
Scott A. Schoettes is the HIV project director for Lambda Legal, a longtime legal champion of HIV-positive people and LGBT civil rights. He filed a brief in The People of the State of New York v. David Plunkett, an HIV criminalization case heard by the New York Court of Appeals, the highest court in the state.
Taking Forward the Recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law
The use of legal environment assessments and the conduct of national dialogue forums are some of the first steps that countries can take in an effort to take forward the findings of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law’s report on HIV and the Law: Risks, Rights and Health.
Ireland: Male sex worker with HIV pleads guilty to prostitution charges
A Brazilian man who is infected with HIV was discovered by Gardai in a suspected brothel in Letterkenny on Monday night, Glenties District Court was told yesterday. Gardai described how they found Jose Filho, 44, who was dressed in women’s underwear and wearing a wig.