Georgia

Georgia has both an HIV-specific law, enacted in 1995, as well as specific provisions in the Criminal Code. An amendment to the Criminal Code was approved in 2006 that allowed for prosecution of both HIV ‘exposure’ and transmission in the absence of disclosure.

Article 131 of the Criminal Code criminalises ‘creating a threat of intentional infection’ (exposure) and ‘intentional infection’ (transmission) with penalties of three to five, and four to seven years’ imprisonment, respectively. The same provision makes ‘negligent infection’ through the execution of professional duties an offence punishable by two to five years’ imprisonment and deprivation of professional occupation for up to three years. The prison sentences for all three of these offences is increased to five to nine years where committed against two or more people, pregnant women, or minors.

While Article 131 appears to require an element of intent, the offence under Article 132, which applies broadly to ‘dangerous infectious diseases’, criminalises ‘exposure’ and transmission without a requirement of intent. The penalties for these acts are lower, at up to one year imprisonment, ‘corrective labour’ for up to six months, or a fine, and imprisonment for up to two years, or corrective labour for up to one year, respectively.

In June 2020, the Georgian NGO, Movement for Equality, submitted a legislative proposal to the Legal Affairs Committee of parliament which would amend Article 131 to remove reference to HIV/AIDS and instead make the provision apply broadly to blood and sexually transmitted infections in order to destigmatise HIV, as well as removing the professional negligence aspect of the offence. The Committee rejected the proposal.

The Law on HIV Infection/AIDS requires all people living with HIV to disclose their status to sexual partners under Article 11. Article 8 compels healthcare providers to make such disclosure where a person living with HIV fails to do so. There are no penalties for failure to abide by these provisions stipulated within this law. Although disclosure of status is legally required, proof of disclosure is not a defence to prosecution under the Criminal Code.

There have been four known prosecutions, all of them for alleged intentional infection of another person with HIV. Three of them resulted in convictions. Case law suggests that intention is presumed where someone is aware of their status and has been informed of the risk of transmission.

In a case in 2014, a man living with HIV was convicted under Article 131 for ‘intentional transmission’ after his wife reported him to police, alleging that he refused to wear condoms when having sex with her, after which she contracted HIV. The evidence of healthcare professionals suggested they had warned the man of the possibility of HIV transmission through unprotected sex, which was taken as evidence of his intent to transmit for the purposes of this section.

A 2023 report by the Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS reported that a Georgian women’s rights organisation, Gvirila, submitted a freedom of information request to authorities which revealed that there had been no prosecutions under Article 131 from 2018 to April 2022.