Joanne Csete and colleagues argue that criminal laws on HIV transmission and exposure should be reviewed and revised to ensure that vertical transmission is explicitly excluded as an object of criminal prosecution. Scaling up PMTCT services and ensuring that they are affordable, accessible, welcoming and of good quality is the most effective strategy for reducing vertical transmission of HIV and should be the primary strategy in all countries.
Guidance for prosecutors on HIV-related Criminal Cases
This guidance document therefore presents 10 key principles that should assist prosecutors in handling a prosecution – or potential prosecution – involving an allegation of HIV non-disclosure, exposure or transmission. Each principle is accompanied by a more detailed commentary examining the specific application of the principle by prosecutors in the course of their handling of a potential or ongoing prosecution. Each principle and its accompanying commentary is grounded in a consideration of the best available scientific evidence, applicable international human rights standards, as well as the widely-agreed professional standards governing the function of prosecutors within the criminal justice system.
New Tech Brief: Roadmap for Key Populations Advocates Navigating the Global Fund
This technical brief seeks to provide an overall snapshot of how the Global Fund mechanism works, to help key populations navigate the pathway to securing funding for their work. It offers toolkits, policy briefs, trainings and other materials that explain different steps of that process in more detail. It also includes case study examples of successful key population programs supported by the Global Fund, in hopes that they inspire creativity, innovation and persistence in driving this work forward.
Law, Criminalisation and HIV in the World: Have countries that criminalise achieved more or less successful AIDS pandemic response?
At the end of the 5-year strategy in which countries around the world focused their AIDS response on reaching people living with HIV with testing and treatment services, this article provides an ecological analysis of whether those countries with criminalising legal environments achieved more or less success. It found that countries that have adopted a criminalising approach to key populations saw less success than those that chose not to criminalise. This analysis suggests a new global AIDS strategy that includes a focus on law reform may hold promise in achieving goals that were missed in 2020.
HIV Criminalization – Human Rights Fact sheet Series
Series of fact sheets on human rights highlighting the critical need to scale up action on rights. Short, easy to digest and accessible document outlining the latest epidemiology, the evidence of the impact of human rights interventions, the latest targets, and international guidelines, recommendations and human rights obligations.
Other factsheets in the same series released in June 2021 include: HIV and people who use drugs, HIV and gay men and who have sex with other men, HIV and transgender and other gender-diverse people, HIV and sex work, HIV and people in prisons and other closed settings and HIV and stigma and discrimination.
Evaluation of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law
Findings from an external evaluation of the impacts and legacy of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law. It explores the fulfilment of the Commission’s objectives, taking into account the perspectives and experiences of representatives from government, including law and policy makers, civil society including those most marginalised and affected by HIV, as well as United Nations agencies and other development partners.
Bareback Sex in the Age of Preventative Medication: Rethinking the ‘Harms’ of HIV Transmission
This article provides a re-examination of the criminal issues relating to HIV transmission within the new landscape of advances in medical science and availability of PrEP and PEP, arguing that it necessitates a shift in attitude, policy and doctrine. It specifically argue that HIV transmission does not meet the appropriate harm threshold to constitute GBH and that if criminal law is ultimately about preventing or regulating harm, the ongoing criminalisation of HIV transmission is counter to that aim.
Evidence for eliminating HIV-related stigma and discrimination – Guidance for countries to implement effective programmes to eliminate HIV-related stigma and discrimination in six settings
This report reviews the latest evidence on what works to reduce HIV-related stigma and discrimination through key programmes to reduce stigma and discrimination and increase access to justice in the six settings of focus for the Global Partnership, including Justice. It includes guidance and recommendations for national governments and key stakeholders to implement programmes to empower populations “being left behind”; remove laws criminalising drug use or possession for personal use, all aspects of sex work, sexual orientation, gender identity, and HIV exposure, non-disclosure and transmission and to routinely review existing laws, regulations and policies relating to HIV.
Limit Cases: How and why we can and should decriminalise HIV Transmission, exposure and non-disclosure
ABSTRACT: Across the world, people living with HIV and AIDS (PLHA) face investigation, prosecution, conviction, and punishment if they transmit HIV to another person, expose others to the risk of HIV acquisition, or fail to disclose in advance their HIV positive status. This article seeks to explain why limiting the criminalisation of HIV is important and necessary; identifies some of the ways in which it has been, and might be, limited; and, finally, offers some reflections on whether there exists a principled limit to decriminalisation arguments (ie whether there are cases which, even if the general principles underpinning decriminalisation is accepted, justify state punishment). Drawing on recent international policy guidance, current scientific knowledge about HIV prevention and treatment, and research on the impact of criminalisation of PLHA, the article argues that decriminalisation is critical to eradicating HIV and should be a public health priority, that biomedical advances in prevention and treatment will assist the decriminalisation project but are insufficient in the absence of legal and criminal justice practice reform.
Fair Trial Manual – Second Edition
This Manual seeks to provide a practical guide to the relevant human rights standards for anyone involved in examining how well a criminal trial or a justice system meets international standards of fairness. It is intended for the use of trial observers and others assessing the fairness of an individual case, as well as for anyone seeking to evaluate the extent to which a country’s criminal justice system guarantees respect for international standards of fair trial. It may also serve as a guide for law makers, judges, prosecutors and defence lawyers or as a training tool.