Title

The defence does not rest: Resisting the criminalization of HIV

Code

TUAD02

Session Type

Oral Abstract Session Track D – Social and political research, law, policy and human rights

Venue

Emerald Room

Date Time

Tuesday 24 July, 11:00 - 12:30

Co-Chairs:

Annabel Raw, Southern Africa Litigation Centre, South Africa
Florence Anam, The International Community of Women Living with HIV, Kenya

11:00 TUAD0201	The new AIDS denialism: How criminal courts' dismissal of modern science perpetuates HIV stigma, discrimination and criminalisation Sally Cameron, HIV Justice Network, United Kingdom	Abstract Slides

11:15 TUAD0202	Decriminalizing HIV: How people living with HIV translated quantitative research into community action and legislative transformation Ayako Ochoa, UCLA, United States	Abstract Slides

11:30 TUAD0203	Step by step: Ending unjust HIV criminalization in Canada through community advocacy based on science and rights Richard Elliott, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Canada	Abstract Slides

11:45 TUAD0204	Marginalized women living with HIV at increased risk of viral load suppression failure: Implications for prosecutorial guidelines regarding criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada and globally Andrea Krüsi, Gender and Sexual Health Initiative, Canada	Abstract Slides

12:00 TUAD0205	How punitive laws have encouraged human rights violations and increased HIV/AIDS transmission among gays and other men who have sex with men in Nigeria Chukwuma Chiaha, International Centre for Advocacy on Right to Health, Nigeria	Abstract

AUTHOR

Felicita Hikuam

SUMMARY

Although countries continue to enact and apply laws that criminalise HIV transmission, civil society advocacy, advances in science and work with judges and parliamentarians such as U=U challenge the need for HIV criminalisation and resulted in law reform and review of the application of these laws in various jurisdictions.

HIGHLIGHTS

According to Sally Cameron of the HIV Justice Network, at least 115 jurisdictions in 76 countries have HIV-specific criminal laws or more general criminal laws, which can be used to prosecute PLHIV for HIV transmission, exposure and/or non-disclosure. Since 2015, several countries have used these laws against PLHIV for the first time. The Canadian Legal AIDS Network and partners presented their advocacy strategy using legal and scientific evidence to ensure a review of the interpretation of the general Criminal Code provisions used to prosecute PLHIV. Andrea Krüsi from the Gender and Sexual Health Initiative in Canada presented the findings of a longitiudinal study with women with multiple vulnerabilities (homelessness, sex work, incarceration) that found 59% of the 264 would not meet the legal test of undetectable viral load for more than 6 months, proposed as a Ontario 2017 prosecutorial guidance dictating no prosecution of people who meet these criteria.

CRITICAL ASSESSMENT

HIV criminalisation laws are harmful and biased against groups that are already marginalised. “Science won’t fix HIV criminalisation but it will reduce prosecutions. However, we must ensure those not on treatment are not further marginalised,” urged Sally Cameron of the HIV Justice Network. On Wednesday, a ground-breaking Expert Consensus Statement on the Science of HIV in the Context of Criminal Law, which was written by a global panel of leading scientists will be launched for use by expert witnesses during prosecutions.