News by the HIV Justice Network

In many countries around the world, people with HIV are being made criminally liable for HIV prevention. Despite strong recommendations against this overly broad use of the criminal law by UNAIDS and the Global Commission on HIV and the Law,…

Read the entire ruling R. v. Ratt [2012] SKPC 154, S.J. No. 590 A Canadian judge in the province of Saskatchewan has ruled that spitting in the face of a police officer is a simple assault that does not result…

Last night saw the world premiere of a compelling, heart-wrenchingly moving 45 minute documentary film executive produced by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network that tells the intimately personal stories of four women living with HIV in Canada. It argues that…

On February 8, 2012, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear two landmark cases on the issue of criminalisation of HIV non-disclosure in R v. Mabior and R v. DC. The Court’s decisions in these two appeal cases will have…

Canada is facing its most critical point in the history of criminalisation of HIV non-disclosure since the Supreme Court’s 1998 Cuerrier decision which found that not disclosing a known HIV-positive status prior to sex that poses a “significant risk” of…

Johnson Aziga, 55, an African migrant living with HIV, is a now officially a “dangerous offender” according to Canadian criminal law. Mr Aziga is already considered a “murderer” two times over. He was convicted in 2009 of two counts of…

Update: June 7 2011  I’ve just learned via my colleagues at the Positive Justice Project in the US, that The Assault with Bodily Fluids Bill (LB226) introduced into the Nebraska State Legislature by Senator Mike Gloor recently passed into law…

A new project announced yesterday by UNAIDS will “further investigate current scientific, medical, legal and human rights aspects of the criminalization of HIV transmission. This project aims to ensure that the application, if any, of criminal law to HIV transmission…

Last week, a woman in Kamloops, BC, arrested for drunkenness and who subsequently engaged in consensual lesbian sex with a fellow prisoner (revealed 10 days later as being HIV-positive) – and who were watched by seven members of the Royal…

The next few weeks sees my involvement in a flurry of anti-criminalisation advocacy in the United States and Canada, coinciding with the publication of the book version of the new international resource I produced for NAM and an article in…

Update August 24th 2010 Adrian Nduwayo, has been found guilty again of five charges of aggravated sexual assault involving five women, three of whom subsequently tested HIV-positive, following a retrial at the BC Supreme Court. He was oringally guilty of…

A new report, launched at AIDS 2010 in Vienna last month, recommends that the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General establish a consultation process to inform the development of prosecution guidelines for cases involving allegations of non-disclosure of sexually transmitted…

A 44 year-old man from Edmonton, Alberta who pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for not disclosing that he was HIV-positive during a one-off consensual encounter with a woman – whilst his viral load was undetectable – has been has been…

This selection of posters presented in Vienna follows up from my previous AIDS 2010 posting on the sessions, meetings and media reporting that took place during last month’s XVIII International AIDS Conference.  I’ll be a highlighting a few others in…

Update: August 18 2010 The 29-year-old man gay accused of not disclosing his HIV-positive status to several men before otherwise consensual sex now faces 26 charges in Ottawa and further five charges in Kitchener according to the latest update from…

In Vancouver, two different men have been accused of not disclosing their HIV-positive status prior to sex with their female partners. Local media are having a field day. The first, a Caucasian man in his late 20s, was arrested on…