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Prosecuting HIV-Related Criminal Cases in Canada: A Model Policy

This document is intended to assist prosecution authorities in developing guidance to avoid the harmful use of the criminal law in relation to HIV and ensure the wise use of scarce prosecutorial resources. Although other sexually transmitted infections may raise similar concerns to HIV, it has overwhelmingly been cases involving HIV that have attracted prosecution and judicial commentary. As such, HIV-related prosecutions are the focus of this document.

Colombian Constitutional Court on: HIV Criminalization, Sex Work, Abortion, Same Sex Marriage and Drugs

This document presents some of the most relevant and recent decisions in which the Court has discussed the limits to individual liberty, autonomy and privacy among issues concerning matters like: (i) HIV criminalization and other protections; (ii) sex work; (iii) abortion or voluntary interruption of pregnancy; (iv) rights of same sex couples to marriage; and, (v) personal drug possession and consumption.

Understanding Criminal Prosecutions for Sexual Transmission of Infection

A report on charges of grievous bodily harm via sexual transmission of infection handled by the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales between 2008-2012, their management and outcomes.

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 drugsHIV and gay men and who have sex with other menHIV and transgender and other gender-diverse peopleHIV and sex workHIV and people in prisons and other closed settings and HIV and stigma and discrimination.

Risk of HIV transmission through condomless sex in serodifferent gay couples with the HIV-positive partner taking suppressive antiretroviral therapy (PARTNER): final results of a multicentre, prospective, observational study

Study findings provide conclusive evidence that the risk of HIV transmission through anal sex when HIV viral load is suppressed is effectively zero.Among the 782 serodifferent gay couples followed for almost 1600 eligible couple-years of follow-up, which included more than 76 000 reports of condomless sex, zero cases of within-couple HIV transmission were found. In the absence of ART, on the basis of the frequency and type of sex, for receptive condomless anal sex acts alone approximately 472 transmissions would have been expected. The results give equivalence of evidence for gay men as for heterosexual couples and indicate that the risk of HIV transmission when HIV viral load is suppressed is effectively zero for both anal and vaginal sex.

HIV Criminalization and Sex Work in California

This study analyses the California Department of Justice criminal history data on arrests of people who had felony solicitation while HIV-positive from 2005 to 2013 and compared the demographics and frequencies with arrest data on sex work over the same time period. Findings indicate a clear disproportionate representation of Black women among those arrested for sex work, in the context of HIV and in general.