Angola

Angola maintains both an HIV-specific statute, as well as a range of provisions in the Penal Code – which came into effect in February 2021 – that could criminalise HIV ‘exposure’, non-disclosure, and transmission.

Article 205 criminalises non-disclosure and transmission of ‘life-threatening sexually transmitted viral or bacterial diseases’. It makes it an offence for anyone who, knowing that they are living with such a disease, to have sexual intercourse with someone without informing them of their status. This provision carries a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment or a fine. Where transmission occurs, the penalty is two to four years’ imprisonment. Where the accused has the intention of transmitting the disease, the punishment is four to six years where there is no transmission, and 10 to 15 years’ where transmission takes place. Where transmission takes place by any other means, the same penalty (10 to 15 years’ imprisonment) applies.

Similarly, Article 206 criminalises ‘exposure’ and transmission of ‘serious diseases’. This provision makes it an offence to, with intent to transmit such a disease that they are living with, to commit an act ‘likely to infect another person’. The penalty is up to three years’ imprisonment and a fine, or six to 10 years’ if transmission occurs.

Additionally, Article 287 criminalises anyone who ‘propagates a contagious disease and thereby creates an actual danger to the life or physical integrity of another person’, with a penalty of two to eight years’ imprisonment, or lower in cases of negligence.

Although these provisions do not define the relevant diseases and therefore do not explicitly include HIV, it is likely that cases of alleged HIV ‘exposure’, non-disclosure, and transmission could be prosecuted under these offences.

Furthermore, Article 199(2) provides for aggravated sentences (by one quarter) for a number of sexual offences, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, and sexual abuse of minors, where the perpetrator is living with a sexually transmitted disease ‘likely to endanger the life of the victim’. The penalties are increased further where committed against minors and transmission takes place.

As well as the Penal Code, Angola maintains an HIV-specific statute, Law 8/04 on HIV and AIDS (2004), which explicitly criminalises HIV transmission and blood donations, as well as imposing duties on those living with HIV. Due to the introduction of the new Penal Code, the corresponding offences in the former Penal Code from which the penalties in the 2004 HIV law are derived no longer exist, so it is not clear whether these penalties would continue to apply. As of November 2019 this law has been under review, and in August 2021 the government announced a planned revision of the law. In May 2024, a workshop to discuss this revision was attended by MPs and civil society. While the stated aims included “revision of discriminatory laws”, no concrete reform proposals have yet been reported.

Section 14 of the current law sets out a range of duties on people living with HIV, which include adopting behaviours to limit the possibility of HIV transmission, including wearing condoms during all ‘sexual relations’, and disclosing HIV status to partners and health professionals. The penalties for failure to abide by these duties are not defined in section 14.

Under section 15, intentional transmission of HIV is defined as an offence prosecutable under section 353 of the former Penal Code, which carried a penalty of up to 24 years’ imprisonment. Similarly, transmission through negligence, carelessness, or failure to observe regulations, is prosecutable under section 368 of the former Penal Code, which carried a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment.

Under section 24, blood donation by people living with HIV is prohibited and transmission through this means is also punishable under section 353 of the former Penal Code (see our report, Bad Blood, for a global analysis of the criminalisation of blood donations).

We are aware of four cases of HIV criminalisation in Angola, however details are extremely sparse due to a lack of accessibility of case reports.

Two cases were reported in 2007/8 although little is known about the circumstances except that the Angola Press reported ‘the police got acquainted with these cases after various conflicts between couples’.

A 2020 briefing paper by the Southern African Legal Centre cites two additional cases. In the first, a man was reportedly sentenced in February 2020 to 22 years and six months’ imprisonment under section 15 of the 2004 HIV law. Media reports suggest the man was accused of ‘financially luring’ and having unprotected sex with three young women. The other case, reported in the same month, involved a man being sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment for alleged intentional transmission to two women.