VICTORIA’S two main HIV and AIDS organisations have released a joint statement urging their state government to reform its HIV-specific criminal law. In a joint policy discussion paper focusing on the repeal of section 19A of the Victorian Crimes Act, the Victorian AIDS Council (VAC) and Living Positive Victoria (LPV) stated that reform needed to happen in order to achieve the goal of eliminating HIV transmissions by 2020.
US: On eve of national HIV criminalisation conference Iowa's remarkable advocacy success is the model for other states to follow
If Gov. Terry Branstad signs Senate File 2297 on Friday as planned, Iowa will become the first state in the country to repeal and replace its criminal transmission of HIV law, activists say.
The law being reformed had been on the books since 1998. A broad coalition of groups, led by the Community HIV and Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network (CHAIN), has been working for the past five years to modernize it.
Advocates said the new law better reflects advances in science, medicine and understanding of how HIV is transmitted.
Until now, Iowa has had one of the harshest HIV transmission laws in the country. Under the 1998 law, persons with HIV could face 25 years in prison and inclusion on the sex offender registry if they could not prove they disclosed their status to a sexual partner — even if no transmission occurred and precautions such as condoms were used.
Under the new law, there is a tiered penalty system, which takes into account whether a person took precautions, whether transmission of HIV actually occurred and whether or not the person intended to transmit HIV.
The new law also adds other infectious diseases to the bill such as hepatitis, tuberculosis and meningococcal disease, which causes meningitis — so the law is no longer HIV-specific.
Finally, it removes the requirement those convicted register as sex offenders, and it will allow people convicted under the old law to be expunged from the registry.
Both the Iowa House and Senate unanimously approved the bill this year, a stark contrast to the four previous years, when similar bills languished in the legislature.
“You have to be in it for the long haul. It’s not an easy process,” CHAIN community organizer Tami Haught said of the group’s lobbying efforts. “We’re still dealing with a lot of the stigma that was around in the ’80s.”
She said when activists set out to change the law five years ago, they hoped to simply see the criminalization law repealed. But that wasn’t palatable to some lawmakers and county prosecutors, who said they still wanted to hold people with HIV accountable for protecting their sexual partners.
Finding ways to compromise was key to getting the sweeping bipartisan support needed, Haught said. Other tactics included meeting frequently with lawmakers, engaging in community education and gathering as many organizations to voice their support as possible.
CHAIN partnered with groups ranging from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office and the Iowa Department of Health to the League of Women Voters, the Family Planning Council and the Interfaith Alliance.
“We were up at the capitol almost every day it was in session talking with legislators. and that’s what needed to happen,” Haught said. “In 2014, maybe there was only one legislator who was not familiar with the law. When we started, a majority of legislators didn’t even know the law existed.”
NATIONAL ACTIVISTS LOOK TO IOWA
CHAIN’s tactics will be on display next week. The changes to Iowa’s law made national news, and activists hope to replicate those efforts in other states.
National group the Sero Project, founded by Iowa City native Sean Strub, is organizing a conference, HIV Is Not a Crime, to be held in Grinnell starting on Monday of next week.
Numerous laws similar to Iowa’s were passed in different parts of the country in the late 1990s in the wake of a high profile 1996 incident in New York. In that case, a man was charged with intentionally infecting 13 women and girls with HIV.
Additional pressure came from the federal government, which at the time required states to have an HIV transmission law on the books to access federal funding for HIV prevention and treatment through the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act.
Today, there are 34 states with a HIV-specific criminalization on the books. Only two had harsher penalties than Iowa. Now, Iowa has become a model for how change could happen elsewhere.
When they started work on the conference, organizers were hoping for perhaps 50 people to attend. As of earlier this week, more than 170 activists from across the United States and four other countries have signed up to spend June 2 through 5 to learn and share lobbying and education techniques related to HIV transmission decriminalization.
“We wanted to bring advocates to one place and give them the tools to go home and try to modernize the laws,” Haught said.
Foremost of those tools should be a willingness for people living with HIV to share their own stories, she said.
“We need to speak up and show we are your neighbors, your friends, your family members,” she said. “Sharing our stories had a great impact on legislators.”
Some of those who has shared their stories include Iowans convicted under the 1998 law. One of those is Donald Bogardus, 43, of Waterloo.
GETTING HIS LIFE BACK
Bogardus was convicted under the old law after authorities said he had unprotected sex with a man three times in 2009.
The man didn’t contract HIV. Bogardus had an undetectable viral load, which means the virus could not be detected in his blood.
People with an undetectable viral load have almost no chance of transmitting the virus. The new law takes that into consideration when sentencing — the old law did not.
“It was not my intent to hurt him by far,” Bogardus said in a video the Sero Project made to tell his story. “The reason I didn’t disclose was I was afraid of rejection. I was afraid of being talked about. I was afraid of losing a friend.”
He spent two months in prison — he was facing 25 years — before receiving a suspended sentence in February, with two to five years of probation. He also had to register as a sex offender, which meant he lost his job as a certified nursing assistant at Country View, a Black Hawk County-owned nursing and mental health care center.
Now that his name will be taken off the registry, effective July 1, he’s hopeful he will be able to return to his old job.
“It has lifted a burden off of me. I’m just being able to get my life back,” he told The Gazette. “I felt like I was in a big cage, and now I feel some relief.”
He also believes the changed law will encourage more people to get tested in the first place because, under the old law, the only defense was not knowing you were HIV positive. The new law also encourages behavior public health officials are pushing, Haught said.
“Now we are incentivizing doing the right thing. If you are taking your medication and using protection, you can’t be prosecuted,” she said.
She said she wants HIV to be treated just as any other communicable disease.
“We’re hoping this will help reduce the stigma associated with being HIV positive and encourage testing and treatment,” she said.
Read more: http://thegazette.com/subject/news/new-hiv-transmission-law-makes-iowa-model-for-nation-20140529#ixzz33CDVnzKV
Australia: Campaign against Victoria’s HIV-specific criminal law launched to tie in with Melbourne Declaration for AIDS 2014
Living Positive Victoria, the organisation representing people living with HIV in the Australian state of Victoria, has launched a campaign for community and cross-party political support to reform the state’s HIV-specific criminal law, the only such law in Australia.
Section 19a of the Crimes Act 1958,’ Intentionally causing a very serious disease’ states
A person who, without lawful excuse, intentionally causes another person to be infected with a very serious disease is guilty of an indictable offence.
In subsection (1) very serious disease means HIV within the meaning of section 3(1) of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 .
The statute, which treats HIV as exceptional and applies a uniquely higher penalty than for other crimes of violence, carries a 25 year maximum penalty.
The call for law reform is a response to the release of the Melbourne Declaration in advance of the 20th International AIDS conference, also known as AIDS 2014, to be held in Melbourne in late July.
“Leading into AIDS 2014 is a highly opportune moment to grasp the issue of law reform so that HIV is treated as a public health matter,” says Ian Muchamore, President of Living Positive Victoria.
The Melbourne Declaration focuses on the need to address multiple legal barriers in the global HIV response, in order “to defeat HIV and achieve universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support”.
In line with the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation, it explicitly states that “nobody should be criminalized because they are living with HIV.” And elsewhere the Declaration “expresses concern at the continued enforcement of discriminatory, stigmatizing, criminalizing and harmful laws which lead to policies and practices that increase vulnerability to HIV.”
HIV criminalisation is set to be a major focus of international attention at AIDS 2014. Living Positive Victoria is one of the hosts of the Beyond Blame pre-conference (along with Victorian AIDS Council/Gay Men’s Health Centre, National Association of People Living with HIV Australia and Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations) which is supported by the AIDS and Rights Alliance of Southern Africa, Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Global Network of People Living with HIV, HIV Justice Network, International Community of Women Living with HIV, Sero Project and UNAIDS.
Read and sign the Melbourne Declaration here
Read and sign the Oslo Declaration here
Read the Living Positive Victoria press release here
Register for Beyond Blame: Challenging HIV Criminalisation (July 20th, Melbourne) here
US: Iowa modernises its HIV-specific law, SF 2297 passes unanimously
(Press release from One Iowa. Further detailed analysis will be available soon)
DES MOINES–After a series of negotiations, a historic bill passed through the Iowa House early this morning that will modernize Iowa’s discriminatory HIV law. Iowa’s current law, 709c, is based on outdated science and beliefs that actually discourages testing and disclosure because of severe penalties associated with simply knowing one’s status. The new bill, Senate File 2297 (SF2297), will change the law so that it is no longer HIV specific, and converts sentencing into a tiered system instead of the “one size fits all” approach used in 709c. The bill unanimously passed the Iowa Senate in February, and moved to the House for debate this morning. The bill, which also passed unanimously in House chambers, will now head to Governor Terry Branstad’s desk for his signature.
The proposed changes to the law are supported by One Iowa, the state’s leading lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) organization, and by Community HIV/Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network (CHAIN), an organization that has spent the last 5 years trying to reform Iowa’s HIV law. Iowa currently has one of the harshest laws in the nation that targets people living with HIV and AIDS.
“After 5 long years of fighting to change Iowa’s law, those of us living in Iowa with HIV and AIDS can finally breathe a sigh of relief,” said Tami Haught, Community Organizer with CHAIN. “We commend the leadership in the Senate and the House for understanding the importance of this bill and the need to modernize Iowa’s draconian 709c law. None of this would be possible without the bipartisan support of Senators Matt McCoy, Steve Sodders, Charles Schneider and Rob Hogg; in addition to Representatives Beth Wessel-Kroeschell, Chris Hagenow and Chip Baltimore. The changes in this new bill are a step in the right direction.
“While the bill that passed today will have a lasting and positive effect on the lives of many Iowans who currently live with HIV and AIDS in our state, our work is far from over,” Haught added. “We must continue our outreach and education within the public sphere about the realties of those living with HIV, to dispel the harmful stereotypes, stigma and misinformation often associated with the disease. Our hope is that by beginning to modernize the laws in Iowa, it will signal other states with similar legislation to do the same. HIV is not a crime; our laws here in Iowa and across the country need to reflect this fact.”
“We are pleased to see Iowa’s policy makers move this bill forward,” said Donna Red Wing, Executive Director for One Iowa. “The changes proposed in this bill will have a profound impact on the lives of Iowans living with HIV and AIDS. This bill will send an important message across the nation, most significantly to those states that still operate under the misinformation of the past. We applaud CHAIN’s efforts, but especially the work of Community Organizer Tami Haught. Tami has fearlessly and passionately shared her story with legislators and community members alike. She has changed hearts and minds, and should be commended as one of the many unsung heroes of this movement. After 5 years of conversations and perseverance, today we celebrate a victory for Iowa’s HIV community.”
Moving from potential complainant to anti-criminalisation advocate
Dee Borrego is a 30-year-old woman, who since being diagnosed with HIV at the age of 20 has been on the forefront national HIV/AIDS activism. For Visual AIDS, Borrego has written an essay in which she talks about the anger and frustration she had towards her ex upon learning about her status, and how she has come to learn that HIV Criminalization is wrong for everyone – especially people living with HIV. The essay is part of the Visual AIDS Play Smart program, an honest and straightforward approach to promote dialogue and action around harm reduction, HIV testing, PEP & PrEP, and other contemporary issues such as HIV Criminalization and No Condoms as Evidence. To learn more: Play Smart
US: Will Donald Bogardus be the last person to be convicted under Iowa’s overly draconian HIV-specific law?
Earlier this month, Donald Bogardus, 42, was given the lightest-ever sentence for HIV non-disclosure in Iowa. He had faced up to 25 years in prison but was given a suspended sentence with two to five years of probation. However, he will also have to register as a sex offender and will likely lose his job as a certified nursing assistant as a result.
Watch Donald tell his story to the SERO Project.
Donald, who was diagnosed in 2007, was arrested in 2009 for having consensual unprotected sex three times with a male partner (who remained HIV-negative) without disclosing that he was HIV positive.
He was charged under Iowa Code § 709C.1, which states: “a person commits criminal transmission of [HIV] if the person, knowing that the person’s [HIV] status is positive … [e]ngages in intimate contact with another person.” The statute defines “intimate contact” as “the intentional exposure of the body of one person to a bodily fluid of another person in a manner that could result in the transmission of [HIV].”
As recently as July 2013, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Iowa’s HIV law was not unconstitutionally vague and upheld the conviction of Adam Musser, who was sentenced to 50 years for not disclosing his HIV-positive status to four women.
Donald was supported through this ordeal by fellow criminalisation survivor, Nick Rhoades, who used a condom, had an undetectable viral load and did not transmit HIV but was sentenced to 25 years by an Iowa court for not disclosing his HIV-positive status to his male partner. Later reduced to a year served, he now must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
(Nick’s story has been covered sympathetically by mainstream news outlets, including CNN, and formed the basis of a major ProPublica investigation, published last December 1st.)
Last September, the Iowa Court of Appeals upheld Nick’s conviction, finding that because he did not use a condom during oral sex there was stll a chance of transmission.
However, Rhoades and his attorneys at Lambda Legal will have another opportunity to argue that the charge and conviction is not based on current science, and the case will soon be heard at the Iowa Supreme Court.
These three cases are the tip of the iceberg, however. There are only 2000 people living with diagnosed HIV in Iowa and yet
Between January 1999 and June 2011, 25 people were charged and 15 were convicted. In 2012, Iowans were paying for the prison sentences of eight Iowans because of this law.
This quote comes from one of two editorials published this week in Iowa newspapers that are supporting a change in the law. The Des Moines Register‘s editorial, entitled ‘Lawmakers should correct Iowa’s HIV mistake‘ begins
During an election year, Iowa lawmakers are reluctant to do anything that could be construed as remotely controversial. it should not be controversial for them to fix a mistake they made 15 years ago that is ruining the lives of innocent Iowans. Lawmakers and Gov. Terry Branstad should repeal a statute that criminalizes the actions of Iowans who are HIV-positive when they have harmed no one.
Meanwhile the Press-Citizen argues that there is ‘Still time to fix Iowa’s HIV law this session’. It covers both Nick’s appeal and the law reform process.
We can only hope the Iowa Supreme Court will be more inclined than the lower court to take new scientific evidence into consideration and move away from past rulings. But whatever the state Supreme Court decides, it’s time for state lawmakers to fix the law. At the very least, lawmakers need to clarify that both intention to transmit and actual transmission is needed for prosecution. They also should specify that the type of sex act, condom usage and the defendant’s viral load need to be taken into account for decisions on prosecution and sentencing. At best, they could repeal the misguided law completely.
These editorials are the result of extremely hard work undertaken by a broad coalition of local and national advocates, and were timed to coincide with yesterday’s “Day on the Hill” when HIV advocates in Iowa visited the Capitol in Des Moines to talk with State legislators about modernising Iowa’s HIV specific legislation.
According to Tami Haught, of CHAIN (the Community HIV/Hepatitis Advocates of Iowa Network) they were able to speak with half of all state Representatives and nearly two thirds of all Iowa Senators. This may create the final push for law reform this legislative session (which ends in April).
Immediately following Donald Bogardus’ sentencing, according to the Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier
Sen. Steve Sodders, a Democrat from State Center, proposed changes to “modernize the draconian law.” The bill has been referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, causing a ripple of Capitol support. “It’s important that we decriminalize some of the effects of this old law. It’s just outdated, and we have to keep up with modern medicine,” Sodders said.
Sen. Charles Schneider, a Republican from West Des Moines and ranking member on that committee, said GOP members in both chambers agree there should be changes to the law. “What I think we need to do is just educate people that the current penalty is more punitive than it needs to be for people who are treating effectively the transmittable disease that they have,” he said.
Attorney General Tom Miller, who supported changes to the law last year, reaffirmed his support this session. Miller said he’s “firmly convinced the statute needs to be changed” and that his office is working with lawmakers to update the statute.
This is a summary what they are proposing.
The proposed Contagious or Infectious Disease Transmission Act would try people who transmit diseases like HIV, Hepatitis C and tuberculosis under the same statute.
It aims to delineate between someone with a criminal intent to infect and simply failing to disclose their status, taking into account whether an infected person used protection or is taking medications to limit the risk of transmission.
Under the new law, a person does not act with criminal intent necessary for a conviction simply by knowing their status and having sex.
Offenders who knew their status would get up to 10 years incarceration — a class C felony — for intentionally transmitting a disease. If they didn’t infect their partner, the sentence would drop to a class D felony or 5 years in prison.
If a person who knew their status and didn’t intend to infect their partner, but acted with a reckless disregard for their health, the violation becomes an aggravated misdemeanor.
The bill eliminates the requirement to register as a sex offender.
With a groundswell of support for modernisation, it seems very likely that Iowa will soon become the first state in the United States to achieve HIV criminalisation law reform.
Uganda: Remove mandatory testing, mandatory disclosure and criminalization clauses in draft HIV-specific law, say activists
A coalition of HIV/AIDS activists has asked parliament to amend some clauses in the HIV/AIDS Protection and Control Bill 2010 before enacted into law. The activists said the HIV Prevention and Control Bill 2010 in its current form has clauses that will deter the fight against the epidemic. The amendments they want include removing mandatory testing, mandatory disclosure and criminalization. They also want the title of the Bill changed to HIV/AIDS Prevention and Management Bill. “Policy makers should treat this matter with urgency,” said Stella Kentutsi the Executive Director, National Forum of People Living with HIV/AIDS Networks in Uganda.
US: Lambda Legal highlights 15 ways that HIV criminalisation laws harm us all
For World AIDS Day 2013, Lambda Legal created a social media campaign on Facebook and on its own blog highlighting all the different ways the overly broad HIV criminalisation laws in the United States harm public health, result in unjust prosecutions, and serve primarily to stigmatize and oppress people living with HIV.
Here, for the first time, are all 15 images and captions collected together. The 15 ways can also be downloaded as a one page factsheet from the Lamba Legal website.
HIV criminalization laws harm public health because they contradict public health messages regarding shared responsibility for safe sex and create a false sense of security regarding a partner’s HIV status (“if he has HIV, he has to tell me”)
HIV criminalization laws harm public health because they may actually reduce disclosure: if you might land in jail after telling someone your status, you may be disinclined to share that information, especially on the second (or later) encounter.
HIV criminalization laws harm public health because they alienate patients from care: information from healthcare providers is often used to prosecute, creating distrust in the provider-patient relationship and reducing opportunities for counseling.
No studies show that HIV criminalization laws promote healthier sexual interactions or help prevent the transmission of HIV.
HIV criminalization laws harm public health because they create a disincentive to HIV testing: if you don’t know your status, you can’t be prosecuted.
HIV criminalization laws result in unjust prosecutions because intent to transmit is not required to prosecute, which means people are imprisoned who had no intent to harm anyone and did not, in fact, place their partner at any risk of transmission.
HIV criminalization laws result in unjust prosecutions because it is extremely difficult to prove disclosure—such conversations most often take place in private and are not documented.
HIV criminalization laws result in unjust prosecutions because convictions may be strongly influenced not only by jurors’ moral disapproval of casual sexual encounters but also an incorrect assessment of the risks both sex partners assume in that circumstance.
HIV criminalization laws result in unjust prosecutions because these laws ignore the science: an undetectable viral load is as effective as condoms in preventing transmission, yet neither is incentivized under most of these laws; and in prosecutions involving allegations of transmission, the state need not prove the defendant was the source of infection.
HIV criminalization laws result in unjust prosecutions because the punishments are completely disproportionate to any purported harm, with lengthy jail terms imposed even in cases of no real risk of transmission and no actual injury of any kind.
HIV criminalization laws serve primarily to stigmatize and oppress people living with HIV because they can be used as a coercive tool by the HIV-negative partner, who may threaten a false accusation and/or arrest and imprisonment if the HIV-positive person doesn’t follow an abuser’s orders.
HIV criminalization laws serve primarily to stigmatize and oppress people living with HIV because they further oppress already marginalized populations: sex workers are made felons, and those whose immigration status is dependent on a clean criminal record are subject to deportation.
HIV criminalization laws serve primarily to stigmatize and oppress people living with HIV because confidentiality may be compromised: nothing prevents a potential partner from telling whoever they want about the person’s HIV status, possibly leading to further stigma and illegal discrimination.
HIV criminalization laws serve primarily to stigmatize and oppress people living with HIV because convictions ruin individual lives: a felony conviction followed by incarceration and then required registration as a “sex offender” make it difficult to put one’s life back together.
HIV criminalization laws serve primarily to stigmatize and oppress people living with HIV because these laws stigmatize ALL people with HIV: sensationalized media reports, which pay little attention to the details of an arrest or prosecution, and the supposed need for HIV-specific laws create the impression that every person living with HIV is a sexual deviant and likely predator.
Bolivia: Join the campaign against the criminalisation of female sex workers with HIV
Last month a 25 year-old female sex worker – a mother of two children – who was working in Sucre and Potosí, Bolivia, was sentenced to house arrest because she continued to work after being diagnosed HIV-positive.
How, the Latin American and Caribbean Network of Female Sex Workers (RedTraSex), along with other national and regional organisations, is calling on the global community to join a campaign against the criminalisation of female sex workers living with HIV in Bolivia asking the authorities for her immediate release, and the government to respect the Human Rights of sex workers.
For full details of the campaign, read below.
According to the information published in the daily La Razón on 13 September and confirmed by RedTraSex, a female sex worker living with HIV was sentenced to house arrest for continuing to work as a sex worker. See information below in “Facts reported”.
RedTraSex repudiates this legal action by Judge Mendizábal, considering it a violation of a sex worker’s human rights, and demands that the ruling be amended and the sex worker be freed immediately. In addition, we demand that the Head of the National Program for HIV/AIDS in Bolivia, Carola Valencia, make a full retraction of her statement in the newspaper La Razón. We demand that the Government of the Plurinational State of Bolivia guarantee the human rights of female sex workers living with HIV. We further reject any kind of criminalization of key populations (female sex workers, GLTBI population, MSM and drug users) due to HIV transmission.
We propose three campaign actions: 1. Petition, 2. Letter to the authorities, and 3. Twitter campaign.
Thank you in advance for your support!
Campaign Actions:
1.- Join the Campaign
You can join the campaign by filling in the form in the following link and sharing it with your contacts.
2.-Letter:
We encourage other organizations and our colleagues to send an email to theVice Minister for Health and Health Promotion, Dr. Martín Maturano Trigo (drmartinmt@… and huanuco@… ) carbon copying the Head of the HIV/AIDS Program, Carola Valencia (cilyva@… ), the CCM of Bolivia (mcpbolivia.secretaria@… ), the PHO HIV focal point, Dr. Roxana Salamanca (rsalamanca@…-oms.org ), the UNAIDS Country Coordinator, Dra. Regina Castillo (castillor@… ), the President of the Thematic Group of the United Nations for HIV-Aids in Bolivia, Dr. Christian Darras (cdarras@…-oms.org ) and us too (camp.redtrasex@…y presidencia@…).
Model letter:
To the Deputy Minister for Health and Health Promotion Dr. Martín Maturano Trigo
We are writing to you to repudiate the action taken by the Judge of the Regional Courts of Chuquisaca, Dr. Ximena Mendizábal, in sentencing a female sex worker with HIV to house arrest. We demand that your department take urgent and definite action to reverse this legal decision which violates the human rights of key populations in the AIDS epidemic.
In addition, we repudiate the statement made by Dr. Carola Valencia, Head of the National HIV/AIDS Program, to La Razón on 13 September 2013, in which she argued that a female sex worker with HIV should not continue to work as a sex worker.
These legal rulings and public statements in the media are violations of human rights and lead to greater discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDS, female sex workers, the GLBTI population, MSM, and drug users.
We demand:
- The immediate release of the sex worker under house arrest
- Dr. Carola Valencia’s swift retraction of her comments in the press
- Urgent education of about health, security and law officials about human rights and HIV/AIDS.
Yours sincerely
(signatures)
C/C to:
3.-Twitter campaign:
Send messages through social networks with messages linked to the letter and to the hashtag #LibertadTrabSexBolivia:
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Kenya: Advocates for repealing HIV criminalisation statute say law is being used to blackmail spouses
Delete sections of the HIV/Aids Prevention and Control Act, on transmission of HIV to others. HIV prevention groups are lobbying the government to do so because they are vague. Nelson Otuoma from the Network of Persons Living with HIV also says that some people are using the act to blackmail spouses and other individuals.