Meet HJN at AIDS 2024

Starting this coming weekend, and continuing until Friday 26th, seven HJN team members will join an estimated 15,000 participants at the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich to advocate for the rights and health equity of people living with HIV globally.

We are grateful to our scholarship providers and funders for making it possible for so many of us to attend AIDS 2024. We are mindful of the many individuals who have been unjustly denied visas to enter Germany and know we are privileged to be able to attend in person.

We’ll do our very best to make sure that everyone’s voices are heard, both at our sessions and at others’.

If you are also fortunate enough to be in Munich, please come and say hello, and tell us about your work and how we might support each other in the global struggle for HIV justice.

Sunday 21st July

11:30am-12:30pm. LIVING Pre-Conference Workshop: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Challenging HIV Criminalisation: The HIV Justice Academy. Room 13b/Channel 7.  This interactive session, featuring most of the HJN team, HJN’s Global Advisory Panel (GAP) member, Robert Suttle, and Sero’s Andy Tapia, covers the realities of HIV criminalisation and strategies to challenge unjust laws.

Monday 22nd July

1:00pm-2:30pm. Global Village Workshop: Denied, Discriminated Against, and Deported: The Global Realities of Migration, Mobility, and Health Equity for People Living with HIV. Global Village Session Room 2. This workshop, co-hosted by HJN, Queensland Positive People, NAPWHA and hivtravel.org addresses HIV-related travel restrictions and advocates for global change, featuring the latest status on HIV migration worldwide from HJN GAP member, David Haerry.

Tuesday 23rd July

12:00pm-1:00pm. Poster Presentation, Prepared for Action: Lessons Learned from the First Year of the HIV Justice Academy presented by HJN’s Sofia Varguez.

3:00pm-4:00pm. Symposium: Equity in Focus: Tackling Inequalities, Room 13a/Channel 6. This session highlights the role of community-led organisations in challenging criminalisation, discrimination and inequalities. HJN’s Edwin Bernard will speak on “Legal Landscapes: The Influence of Legislation on the Lives and Rights of the HIV Community”.

Wednesday 24th July

8:30am-10:00am. Plenary session: Addressing structural barriers: How can we do better? Hall C1/Channel 1. This morning plenary session includes HJN GAP member, Michaela Clayton, presenting “Breaking Barriers: Challenging HIV Criminalization to Counter Inequalities”.

[Rescheduled from Tuesday] 12:00pm-12:30pm. Discussion: U=U in HIV Decriminalisation Advocacy, U=University Networking Zone, Global Village, Featuring a conversation between HJN’s Edwin Bernard, and Kamaria Laffrey and Andy Tapia of the Sero Project.

2:30pm-4:30pm. Workshop: Getting Decriminalisation Right: What do good laws look like? Room 14a/Channel 9. This workshop from UNAIDS, UNDP and GNP+ will facilitate knowledge exchange on good practices in decriminalisation in relation to HIV outcomes and includes HJN’s Edwin Bernard and HJN GAP member, Alexander McClelland.

Thursday 25th July

12.00pm-1.00pm. Poster presentations. HJN team members Sylvie Beaumont, Elliot Hatt and Sofia Varguez will present four posters: Global Trends in HIV Criminalisation; The Relevance of Gender to Potential or Perceived HIV ‘Exposure’ Charges in HIV Criminalisation Cases; The ABCs of HIV Law Reform in Latin America and the Caribbean: Case Studies on HIV (De)criminalisation in Argentina, Belize, and Colombia; and Challenging Coercion and Misplaced Punishment: HIV and Infant Feeding Choices.

3:00pm-4:00pm: Workshop: Doing HIV Justice in Europe. Global Village 555 Zone. This workshop, led by HJN’s Julian Hows and featuring most of the HJN team, will focus on HIV decriminalisation advocacy across the WHO Europe region.

All Week (Sunday-Thursday)

Global HIV Migration, Global Village Exhibition Booth ADO4

This booth has been designed to capture a short video in a safe and secure space for anyone to tell us their story about travelling or relocating with HIV with a highly experienced film maker, HJN’s video and visuals consultant, Nicholas Feustel. Co-hosted by HJN, Queensland Positive People, NAPWHA and hivtravel.org.