By Alex GarnerEditor-at-Large Editor’s Note: I had the privilege of meeting Louis Gay while in DC at the International AID Conference. Louis faces criminal charges in Norway because he is HIV-positive and didn’t disclose prior to oral sex, even though no transmission occurred.
Imprisoned for transmitting HIV: One man's story | KETK
The nightmare Nick Rhoades has been living the past four years began after a one-time sexual encounter with another Iowa man, Adam Plendl. It was June 2008. The 34-year-old Rhoades, who is HIV positive, says he was on antiretroviral medications.
Blogger explains why she would never use the criminal law to punish her husband for infecting her
Here are two U.S. organisations that can sometimes offer legal help and can certainly offer advice and support for those facing prosecution for HIV transmission and/or failure to disclose a HIV+ status.
Relations Between Poz And Neg Men Need Work
Relations Between Poz And Neg Men Need Work Posted 8/23/2012 3:00:00 PM We live in a sero-discordant world and you would think that thirty-one years into the epidemic we would have made great strides in the relations between poz and neg men. However, it’s increasingly clear that is not the case.
Canada: Journalist Noreen Fagan examines what the Supreme Court ruling might mean for people living with HIV
Risk assessment Since HIV is no longer a death sentence, should the law still make it illegal for someone with the disease to keep that information from a sexual partner? With the Supreme Court set to answer that question this fall, NOREEN FAGAN examines the implications for society and those with HIV.
HIV Criminalisation Survivors Speak Out: Human Rights Networking Zone Panel (AIDS 2012)
Panel session in the Human Rights Networking Zone at AIDS 2012 (25 July 2012)
Organizer: HIV Justice Network
Presenters:
– Edwin J Bernard, Co-ordinator, HIV Justice Network, United Kingdom
– Louis Gay, Deputy Chair, Patient Network for HIV, Norway [from 02:28]
– Robert Suttle, Assistant Director, The Sero Project, USA [from 10:19]
– Marama Pala, Executive Director, INA – Maori, Indigenous and Pacific Island HIV/AIDS Foundation, New Zealand [from 21:00]
Video produced by Nicholas Feustel, georgetown media,
for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
Press Conference (AIDS 2012)
HIV Criminalization – An Epidemic Of Ignorance?
Laws and prosecutions that single out people with living with HIV are ineffective, counterproductive and unjust.
As delegates from around the world met in Washington DC at AIDS 2012 to discuss how to “end AIDS” through the application of the latest scientific advances, this press conference highlighted how laws and policies based on stigma and ignorance are not only creating major barriers to prevention, testing, care and treatment, but also seriously violating the human rights of people living with HIV.
Hosted by (in alphabetical order): The Center for HIV Law & Policy / Positive Justice Project, United States; Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), Netherlands; HIV Justice Network, United Kingdom/Germany; INA (Maori, Indigenous & South Pacific) HIV/AIDS Foundation, New Zealand; The SERO Project, United States; Terrence Higgins Trust, United Kingdom; UNAIDS, Switzerland.
Chaired by Paul de Lay, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS, Switzerland
Speakers:
– Nick Rhoades, HIV criminalization survivor, United States [from 03:28]
– Marama Pala, former complainant, New Zealand [from 09:15]
– Edwin J Bernard, Co-ordinator, HIV Justice Network/Consultant, GNP+ [from 14:35]
– Laurel Sprague, Research Director – SERO, United States [from 23:15]
– Lisa Fager Bediako, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation/ Positive Justice Project, United States [from 33:10]
Video produced by Nicholas Feustel, georgetownmedia.de, for the HIV Justice Network
HIV Criminalization – An Epidemic Of Ignorance? Press Conference at AIDS 2012 (Press Release)
For Immediate Release
****MEDIA ADVISORY****
Press Conference: 10am, Wednesday 25th July, Press Conference Room 2
HIV Criminalization – An Epidemic Of Ignorance?
Laws and prosecutions that single out people with living with HIV are ineffective, counterproductive and unjust.
As delegates from around the world meet this week in Washington DC at AIDS 2012 to discuss how to “end AIDS” through the application of the latest scientific advances, laws and policies based on stigma and ignorance are not only creating major barriers to prevention, testing, care and treatment, but also seriously violating the human rights of people living with HIV.
This is especially true in the United States, where 36 states and 2 territories have HIV-specific criminal statutes that single out people living with HIV as potential criminals. However, this growing epidemic of bad laws and prosecutions is a global problem that requires an internationally co-ordinated and concerted effort to overcome.
Come meet people living with HIV who have been involved in both sides of a prosecution as well as some of the experts and advocates who are part of a growing global movement, supported by UNAIDS and the UNDP-led Global Commission on HIV and the Law, working to ensure that the application of criminal laws, if any, to people living with HIV is fair, consistent, restrained, proportionate and appropriate, and serves justice without jeopardising public health objectives and fundamental human rights.
As well as two very personal stories that embody just how HIV criminalization is fundamentally wrong-headed and unjust, presentations will include:
· New data on the Top 15 global HIV criminalization hot-spots
· Preliminary results of SERO criminalization survey highlighting the devastating impact of HIV criminalization in the United States
· The Positive Justice Project’s consensus statement and the latest information on Congresswoman Barbara Lee’s REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act
Hosted by (in alphabetical order):
· Global Network of People Living with HIV (GNP+), Netherlands
· HIV Justice Network, United Kingdom/Germany
· INA (Maori, Indigenous & South Pacific) HIV/AIDS Foundation, New Zealand
· The SERO Project, United States
· Terrence Higgins Trust, United Kingdom
· UNAIDS, Switzerland
Chaired by Paul de Lay, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS, Switzerland, speakers will include:
· Nick Rhoades, HIV criminalization survivor, United States
· Marama Pala, former complainant, New Zealand
· Edwin J Bernard, Co-ordinator, HIV Justice Network, and Consultant, GNP+ Global Criminalisation Scan
· Laurel Sprague, Research Director – SERO, United States
· Lisa Fager Bediako, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation/ Positive Justice Project, United States.
A question and answer session will follow. The press conference will end at 10.45am.
To arrange interviews with any of the speakers please contact Edwin J Bernard via email or mobile.
Media Contact
Edwin J Bernard, Co-ordinator, HIV Justice Network
Mobile: +1.347.681.8411
Email: edwin(at)hivjustice.net
Media Stigma, HIV And Criminalization for AIDS 2012 (Leo Herrera, Sero Project, US, 2012)
SERO Project, Media Stigma, HIV And Criminalization for International AIDS Conference, Washington DC, July 2012.
Presentation by Sean Strub, Film by Leo Herrera.
Canada: New documentary, ‘Positive Women: Exposing Injustice’ has world premiere in Toronto
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Last night saw the world premiere of a compelling, heart-wrenchingly moving 45 minute documentary film executive produced by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network that tells the intimately personal stories of four women living with HIV in Canada. It argues that the current legal situation which criminalises sexual behaviour between consenting adults and discriminates against those living with HIV is irrational, ineffective and unjust.
Positive Women: Exposing Injustice features four courageous positive women bravely speaking from the heart on this important issue:
- Diane, from Quebec (the defendant in the Supreme Court case R v DC) who was charged for not telling her partner that she had HIV at the beginning of an ultimately abusive relationship;
- Jessica, a young woman who chose not to pursue charges against the man who infected her, and who has some of the best lines in the film (she calls disclosing her HIV-positive status, “dropping the H-bomb”!);
- Lynn, an Aboriginal woman who has personally faced extreme stigma and violence due to her HIV-positive status; and
- Claudia, a Latina woman who describes the challenges of disclosure and intimate relationships for women living with HIV.
Legal experts, doctors, counsellors and support workers also appear in the film to complement the women’s stories and to challenge current Canadian legal practice that is oppressing the very women they are meant to protect. Anyone who believes that HIV criminalisation protects women needs to see this film.
It will next be screened in Washington DC at the International AIDS Conference on Thursday July 26th in the Global Village Screening Room from 18:00-19:00. The screening will be followed by a question and answer session.
For more information about the documentary, which was produced and directed by Alison Duke, visit http://www.positivewomenthemovie.org/index.html