Registration for the Legal Network’s 7th Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights is open

Rethinking Justice: 7th Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights

Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights

Chelsea Hotel, 33 Gerrard St. W., Toronto

Thursday, June 15, 2017, 9 a.m. – 5 p.m.

This year’s Symposium is devoted to a critical look at the unjust criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. Themes to be discussed include:

Current state of criminalization: Canada and the world
Voices rising: speaking out about the experience of HIV criminalization
Science of HIV transmission: recent applications, emerging issues
Advocacy updates and ways forward

Details for the 7th Symposium are now being finalized. We will update this page with more details as they become available, including a full list of speakers.

General admission: $75
Legal Network members: $50
Students, low-income and persons living with HIV or AIDS: $25*

*Please note that, if necessary, you can request a full waiver of this reduced fee by contacting the Legal Network office.

If you have questions about the Symposium, please contact info@aidslaw.ca.

Call for Submissions to shape the Second Africa Regional Dialogue on HIV, TB and the Law

Are you protected from discrimination or unfair treatment because of your HIV status or your TB status? Or does discrimination persist? What has changed, if anything, in the last 5 years?

As a woman living with HIV, do you still experience violence from partners, stigmatisation, blame, or discrimination from health carers because of your HIV status? Has there been any positive change in laws, practices or the actions of others in the past 5 years?

Are you better protected from violence and harassment, as a person living with HIV, a person who uses drugs, a transgender person, sex worker, or a man who has sex with men? How, if at all? Does this make it easier for you to use HIV health care services? What problems persist?

Are you a child or young person affected by HIV? How are you treated, at clinics or at school? Are you able to get health care and social assistance? Has anything changed in the past 5 years to make things easier? What helps and what blocks you from getting the care you need?

Has there been any positive change in the past 5 years in the way you’re treated by health care workers [or employers]? Are you treated unfairly because of your HIV status, your TB status, your sexual orientation, gender identity or your work? What, if anything, has changed?

Are cultural norms and practices that put you at risk of HIV being changed, challenged or adapted? How? What works? What more is needed?

Are you able to access treatment for HIV, AIDS and TB? Is your government doing enough to provide health care? Are intellectual property laws used to increase access to treatment?

Do you know your rights? Do health care workers and the police know and respect your rights? What’s been done to improve this? How has this helped?

Is there better legal assistance from the state or NGOs to protect you from TB and HIV-related discrimination, in the past 5 years? Can you bring problems to court? Where else can you bring your complaints?

Do you provide legal services to people living with HIV and people with TB, women, children, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender persons, sex workers, prisoners, migrant workers or mobile populations? Have these been strengthened? How has this helped?

Do you work to develop protective laws, policies and programmes, challenge laws in court and improve the legal situation of people living with HIV, women, children, people who use drugs, men who have sex with men, transgender persons, sex workers, prisoners, migrant workers and mobile populations? Tell us what you’ve done, what has changed and what you’ve learned.

Are you a researcher or activist whose work builds evidence around the impact of human rights, and rights-based responses to HIV, AIDS and TB? Tell us what you’ve done, what has changed and what you have learned’.

Share your experience with the Second Africa Regional Dialogue planning team.

Make a submission TODAY!

Your submissions will shape the Second Africa Regional Dialogue on HIV, TB and the Law ’s conclusions and recommendations

Selected submissions will be invited to the Regional Dialogue!

Second Africa Regional Dialogue on HIV, TB and the Law

The AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA) and UNDP Regional Service Centre for Africa, under the Africa Regional Grant on HIV: Removing Legal Barriers, will host the second Africa Regional Dialogue on HIV, TB and the Law on 3-4 August 2017 in Johannesburg,South Africa.

The first Africa Regional Dialogue on HIV and the Law called for evidence on the impact of laws,policies and practices on the lives of key populations and on universal access to HIV-related health care services. The second Africa Regional Dialogue will continue to identify key HIV, as well as TB, issues of critical concern. However, it will include a strong focus on understanding what has been done to follow up the recommendations from the first Africa Regional Dialogue, and what has worked to bring about change. The Dialogue would like to hear how laws and policies have changed, if at all and whether this changes lives; how education and training have helped to empower populations and to change attitudes, if at all and whether populations are better able to access support and mechanisms to enforce their rights.

The second Africa Regional Dialogue will bring together 140 government and civil society participants from across Africa to discuss progress on the implementation of the findings and recommendations of the Commission on HIV and the Law in the region, highlight issues and ongoing challenges and make strategic suggestions and recommendations on the way forward.

Objectives:

1. To provide a platform for a range of stakeholders from different sectors, including people living with HIV/TB, key populations, civil society and government, to engage in evidence informed discussions on priority HIV, TB, law and human rights issues of regional and national concern;

2. To reflect on the extent to which the findings and recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law have been implemented and to evaluate the impact of these initiatives on HIV, law and human rights issues;

3. To identify current challenges and obstacles that continue to impede access to justice and to HIV/TB treatment, care and support services; and

4. To share Model Laws, good practices and lessons learned from work undertaken in the region to date on implementing the findings and recommendations of the Global Commission on HIV and the Law and strengthening the legal and policy environments regarding access to HIV/TB, health and social services.

Outcomes

1. Increased understanding of ongoing, key HIV/TB, law and human rights issues of regional and national concern, the impact of rights-based responses, as well as current and ongoing gaps, challenges and barriers to universal access to HIV-related health care.

2. The prioritisation of regional and national recommendations for action in the short, medium and long term to strengthen HIV/TB, law and human rights in Africa; and

3. A strengthened network of CSOs, academia, activists, government, legislators, members of the judiciary and other stakeholders to provide continued engagement on HIV/TB and the law in Africa

Thematic areas of the Dialogue

• Stigma and discrimination, legal aid responses, legal frameworks and access to justice

• Laws and practices that mitigate or sustain violence and discrimination lived by women

• Laws and practices that facilitate or impede treatment access

• Law and HIV pertaining to children and young people

• Laws and practices that effectively criminalise people living with HIV and key populations at higher risk of HIV and those at risk of TB

How can the law play a central role in the HIV and TB response?

Imagine living in a world where the law fully protects the human rights and dignity of all. In that world women, young people and key populations– sex workers, people who use drugs, gay men and men who have sex with men, transgender people, prisoners and migrants – could safely and freely take steps to protect themselves against HIV infection and to stay healthy if they are living with HIV. They would be able to access services that benefit not only them but also for the benefit of their partners.

The law can protect those vulnerable to and living with HIV and those with TB, against abuse and harassment by the police and against discrimination by healthcare workers and employers. The law can make it possible for people at risk of HIV to access the tools they need to prevent infection. Likewise, the law can make it possible for people living with HIV and those with TB to access life-sustaining treatment.

Knowledge of and respect for the law and how to enforce it can help to create an safe, protective environment for all affected populations. A world in which laws support human rights for all can be a world without HIV and TB!

Why is your submission important?

To have the greatest impact, the Second Africa Regional Dialogue’s planning team is seeking inputs from diverse civil society groups and individuals, including those advocating for human rights, women’s issues, key populations, etc. We are looking to learn from the experiences and knowledge of those most affected, to find out about empowering laws and practices and how they’ve led to change, and disempowering laws and practices that remain. The Dialogue wants to hear what’s been done to create change, what works and why, or why not. By speaking out now, your experience and knowledge will help to shape the Regional Dialogue’s thinking and recommendations, and influence advocacy efforts in the region.

WHAT TO SUBMIT

We want to learn from your experience or knowledge.

The first Africa Regional Dialogue found that in many parts of Africa, as in other parts of the world, the law treats people vulnerable to HIV as criminals. Many African countries criminalise a wide range of behaviors that may expose a person to HIV, making potential criminals of people living with HIV. In some countries, people with TB are detainedunnecessarily and forced to take treatment. In other countries, it is illegal to be a sex worker, a homosexual, a transgender person, a drug user or a migrant. Even in places where these behaviours are not crimes, law enforcement agencies, including police officers, harass or abuse members of these groups. The Global Commission recommended repealing punitive criminal laws and working to reduce stigma, discrimination and violence by law enforcers and others. Are you a member of one these groups who has been cast as a criminal or mistreated by police because of who you are? Do you work with marginalised people whose lives are criminalised? Share your experience of any changes in laws and practices that have impacted on your life or the lives of those you work with, and what still needs to be done.

Similarly, the Africa Regional Dialogue found that women and young people often experience violence, discrimination and inequality, and are unable to access basic rights for survival, increasing their vulnerability to HIV. They recommended law review to promote equal access to their rights, prevent discrimination and violence and access to justice and enforcement to help those who have suffered. Have you lived this experience or worked with people who have? What, if anything, has changed? Share your experiences.

In many places, intellectual property laws create barriers to treatment access, resulting in inflated prices and reduced supplies of life-saving medicines. Are you an academic, researcher or human rights advocate who works to increase access to HIV and TB treatment through intellectual property rights in your country? Share your work and your perspective with us.

HOW TO SUBMIT

1) Countries covered by this call

You are invited to make a submission if your experience has been in a country within the African Union.

Submissions will be reviewed by a selection committee composed of the Africa Regional Grant on HIV: Removing Legal Barriers’ Sub recipients (ARASA, KELIN, SALC and Enda Santé), the Principal recipient (UNDP) and a number of regional key populations groups. A number of authors of submissions will be invited to Johannesburg to participate in the Second Regional dialogue, which will be conducted with simultaneous translation between English, French and Portuguese.

2) Languages

Submissions are welcome in English, French and Portuguese.

3) Confidentiality of Submissions

Submissions can be made at two levels: Public or Confidential. You should clearly state if you would like it to remain confidential. All submissions will be collected by ARASA for an objective review by the Regional Review Panel, based on a range of criteria. ARASA will then submit the relevant submissions to a Regional Selection Committee which will select the submissions to be shared at the Regional Dialogue.

If you would like your submission to be treated as confidential, then please provide two versions of the submission: (1) a confidential version, which will be viewed only by ARASA, (2) a public version with all confidential information removed, which will be submitted to the Regional Selection Committee for review.

Please note that while only some submissions will be selected for the Regional Dialogue, all submissions sent to the Regional Selection Committee are important and will in form and shape the Dialogue’s agenda, conclusions and recommendations.

4) Format of Submissions

All submissions must follow the template for submissions prescribed below.

• Letter format: Submissions should be no more than 3 pages long (maximum 1500 words in the main body of the submission), on A4 size paper. If sent by email, submissions should be in PDF (.pdf), RTF (.rtf) or Word Doc (.doc; docx) format. (Please note if your submission is confidential, only the public version will be shared with the Regional Selection Committee for review).

• Audio/Video format: Submissions in audio or video format should be no more than 10 minutes long. (If your audio or video submission is confidential, please do not mention your name and contact details in the submission. Instead, please include this information in the submission template accompanying your submission.)

• Online Audio/Video submissions: Submissions that cannot be sent via mail or email can be submitted online. They may be uploaded on “youtube.com” or “vimeo.com” using a personal account. Please make sure to secure your video as “private” and send us the link and password to your video

5) Deadline

12 June 2017

Please note that only 1 submission per individual or organisation will be accepted.

Send your entries to:

• Via Email to: submissions@arasa.info

Subject line should be: “Submission Second Africa Regional Dialogue-level of Confidentiality-Key issue(s)”. (e.g. Submission Africa Regional Dialogue-Public- Criminalisation of drug use).

• Via Mail to: ARASA, Unit 203 Saltcircle, 374 Albert Road, Woodstock. Cape Town, South Africa, 7915

Register now for ARASA’s Online HIV Criminalisation Course in June-July 2017

Next month, ARASA will host an short online course on HIV criminalisation for civil society, policymakers, religious leaders, healthcare providers and law enforcement officials.

The course is free, takes place in English, willl last six weeks (5 June 2017 – 14 July 2017) and will require four hours a week commitment.

This online course will introduce participants to information about the criminalisation of HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure – often referred to as ‘HIV criminalisation’ – and the negative impact it has on the human rights of people living with HIV and key populations and on universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.

Human rights experts argue that most countries already have criminal laws, such as the laws against assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, that can be used to deal with intentional transmission of HIV and therefore there is no need to create new laws to deal specifically with HIV.

During the course, participants will:

Learn how to identify harmful HIV laws, including cases which have been recorded showing the impact of laws which criminalise people living with HIV.
Master the foundational steps and best practices.
Implement and support strategies to remove laws which harm people living with HIV.

The focus is on providing knowledge and skills so that participants can identify harmful HIV-specific laws and advocate for the removal of these laws. The online short course will share the current status-quo of laws which criminalise people living with HIV, including other resources that aim to strengthen your advocacy.

This course will strengthen participants’ understanding of:

How do HIV-specific laws criminalise those people living with HIV, further affecting those most vulnerable such as women and key populations
How cases are being brought against the most affected populations, thus reversing the current successes made in HIV
How does HIV criminalisation affect YOUR community, and what can you do about it?

How to Apply:

Kindly send ARASA the following:

1. A one page letter of motivation, setting out why you feel that you would benefit from participating in the short course (Please outline how you will use the skills acquired during the course in your own country advocacy);

2. Your resume / CV;

3. A letter of support from the organisation you are currently working with / affiliated to.

Applications should be submitted by email to Bruce Tushabe at bruce(at)arasa.info (and copy Lynette Mabote at lynette(at)arasa.info ).

All applications must be received by no later than close of business 22 May 2017. Kindly note that applications received after the closing date will not be considered. Successful applicants will be notified by no later than 1 June 2017. Should you not receive any feedback from us by 3 June 2017 kindly consider your application unsuccessful.

US: 2018 HIV Is Not a Crime National Training Academy to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana (Press Release)

SERO Project and Positive Women’s Network-USA Announce 2018 HIV Is Not a Crime National Training Academy in Indianapolis

May 15, 2017: Building on the amazing success of the HIV Is Not a Crime II National Training Academy last year, the SERO Project and Positive Women’s Network-USA are pleased to announce that the planning process is underway for the third HIV Is Not a Crime National Training Academy to support repeal or modernization of laws criminalizing the alleged non- disclosure, perceived or potential exposure or transmission of HIV. The training academy will be held at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) June 3-6, 2018.

As part of the announcement of HIV is Not a Crime III, Tami Haught, Conference Coordinator with the SERO Project says, “Dr. Carrie Foote and the HIV Modernization Movement, in coordination with other state organizations, will provide the conference with great support and leadership as a host committee. We hope that hosting the Training Academy in Indiana will highlight the archaic HIV-specific laws and empower advocates and allies to modernize Indiana’s statues.”

HIV is Not a Crime III will once again unite and train advocates living with HIV and allies from across the country on laws criminalizing people living with HIV and on strategies and best practices for repealing such laws. Skills-building training, with an emphasis on grassroots organizing, advocacy, coalition-building and campaign planning, will leave participants with concrete tools and resources to work on state-level strategies when they return home.

“The HIV Modernization Movement (HMM) is excited to welcome HIV is Not a Crime III to the IUPUI campus! Science has made extraordinary advances since the HIV epidemic began in the 1980s, but one area that hasn’t kept up is the body of laws that criminalize HIV. Lacking in scientific merit, these harmful laws stigmatize people living with HIV and are counterproductive to HIV treatment and prevention efforts. Organized activities like this one, that bring together people living with HIV and their allies to collectively strategize on reforming these draconian laws, are critical to ending the HIV epidemic,” says Dr. Carrie Foote, HMM Chair and Associate Professor at IUPUI.

Get involved in making HIV is Not a Crime a success! Sign up to participate in one of our planning workgroups here (bit.ly/HINAC-workgroup).

Are you interested in providing financial support for this important event?Please contact Sean Strub, SERO Project (sean.strub[at}seroproject.com) or Naina Khanna at Positive Women’s Network – USA (naina.khanna.work[at]gmail.com) for more information.

Questions? Please contact Tami Haught, SERO Organizer and Training Coordinator, at: tami.haught[at]seroproject.com.

Canada: The 7th symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights organised by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network will take place on June 15, 2017

Rethinking Justice: Seventh Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights

You’re invited to join us for the day symposium on Thursday, June 15, 2017, for rethinking Justice, our 7th symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights

This year’s Symposium is devoted to a critical look at the unjust criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. Themes to be discussed include:

Current state of criminalization: Canada and the world
Voices rising: Speaking out about the experience of HIV criminalization
Science of HIV transmission: recent applications, emerging issues
Advocacy updates and ways forward

The full-day event will take place at the Chelsea Hotel, 33 Gerrard St. W., in Toronto. We will release a list of speakers and topics for this year’s Symposium shortly.

Please save the date for this exciting and informative event on June 15. Keep an eye on our webpage at aidslaw.ca/symposium for more information, including a list of speakers.

You can register to attend the Symposium today. Visit our registration page to confirm your spot.

For more information, please contact info@aidslaw.ca.

Unable to join us at the Symposium? Consider making a gift to the Legal Network to support our work, including resisting unjust HIV criminalization.

US: California LGBT Caucus holds briefing on the proposed repeal of HIV criminalisation laws

On Thursday, the LGBT Caucus held a briefing on the decriminalizing HIV and SB 239 introduced by State Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco).

The controversial bill, Senate Bill 239, introduced in early February, would repeal laws passed more than three-decades ago that Wiener and supporters say are discriminatory and not based in science. The proposed bill would treat HIV like other communicable diseases under California Law.

According to the proposed bill, it would make it a misdemeanor instead of a felony to intentionally expose someone to HIV.

Here is a look at the Legislative Digest regarding the bill:

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

SB 239, as introduced, Wiener. Infectious and communicable diseases: HIV and AIDS:criminal penalties.

(1) Existing law makes it a felony punishable by imprisonment for 3, 5, or 8 years in the state prison to expose another person to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) by engaging in unprotected sexual activity when the infected person knows at the time of the unprotected sex that he or she is infected with HIV, has not disclosed his or her HIV-positive status, and acts with the specific intent to infect the other person with HIV. Existing law makes it a felony punishable by imprisonment for 2, 4, or 6 years for any person to donate blood, body organs or other tissue, or, under specified circumstances, semen or breast milk, if the person knows that he or she has acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), or that he or she has tested reactive to HIV. Existing law provides that a person who is afflicted with a contagious, infectious, or communicable disease who willfully exposes himself or herself to another person, or any person who willfully exposes another person afflicted with the disease to someone else, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

This bill would repeal those provisions. The bill would instead make the intentional transmission of an infectious or communicable disease, as defined, a misdemeanor, if certain circumstances apply, including that the defendant knows he or she is afflicted with the disease, that the defendant acts with the specific intent to transmit the disease to another person, that the defendant engages in conduct that poses a substantial risk of transmission, as defined, and that the defendant transmits the disease to the other person. The bill would impose various requirements upon the court in order to prevent the public disclosure of the identifying characteristics, as defined, of the complainant and the defendant. By creating a new crime, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

(2) Under existing law, if a defendant has been previously convicted of prostitution or of another specified sexual offense, and in connection with the conviction a blood test was administered, as specified, with positive test results for AIDS, of which the defendant was informed, the previous conviction and positive blood test results are to be charged in any subsequent accusatory pleading charging a violation of prostitution. Existing law makes defendant guilty of a felony if the previous conviction and informed test results are found to be true by the trier of fact or are admitted by the defendant.

This bill would delete that provision. The bill would also vacate any conviction, dismiss any charge, and legally deem that an arrest under the deleted provision never occurred. The bill would require any court or agency having custody or control of records pertaining to the arrest, charge, or conviction of a person for a violation of the deleted provision to destroy, as specified, those records by June 30, 2018. By imposing this duty on local agencies, the bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would also authorize a person serving a sentence as a result of a violation of the deleted provision to petition for a recall or dismissal of sentence before the trial court that entered the judgment of conviction in his or her case. The bill would require a court to vacate the conviction and resentence the person to any remaining counts while giving credit for any time already served.

(3) Existing law requires the court to order a defendant convicted for a violation of soliciting or engaging in prostitution for the first time to complete instruction in the causes and consequences of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and to submit to testing for AIDS. Existing law requires such a defendant, as a condition of either probation or participating in a drug diversion program, to participate in an AIDS education program, as specified.

This bill would repeal those provisions.

(4) The bill would also make other conforming changes.

(5) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that with regard to certain mandates no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

With regard to any other mandates, this bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs so mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.

Here is a copy of the Press Release introducing the Bill on Feb 6

Senator Wiener and Assemblymember Gloria Announce Bill to Modernize Discriminatory HIV Criminalization Laws

Equality California, Positive Women’s Network – USA, ACLU and others join in support of bill to reform outdated laws enacted during a time of fear and ignorance to make them more consistent with laws involving other serious communicable diseases

February 6, 2017

Today, Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblymember Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) introduced a bill to modernize laws that criminalize and stigmatize people living with HIV. Assemblymember David Chiu (D-San Francisco) is also a co-author of the bill. Senate Bill 239 would amend California’s HIV criminalization laws, enacted in the 1980s and ‘90s at a time of fear and ignorance about HIV and its transmission, to make them consistent with laws involving other serious communicable diseases.

The bill is cosponsored by the ACLU of California, APLA Health, Black AIDS Institute, Equality California, Lambda Legal and Positive Women’s Network – USA. The organizations are part of Californians for HIV Criminalization Reform (CHCR), a broad coalition of people living with HIV, HIV and health service providers, civil rights organizations and public health professionals dedicated to ending the criminalization of HIV in California. San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy also attended the announcement.

“These laws are discriminatory, not based in science, and detrimental to our HIV prevention goals,” said Senator Wiener. “They need to be repealed. During the 1980s — the same period when some proposed quarantining people with HIV — California passed these discriminatory criminal laws and singled out people with HIV for harsher punishment than people with other communicable diseases. It’s time to move beyond stigmatizing, shaming, and fearing people who are living with HIV. It’s time to repeal these laws, use science-based approaches to reduce HIV transmission (instead of fear-based approaches), and stop discriminating against our HIV-positive neighbors.”

SB 239 updates California criminal law to approach transmission of HIV in the same way as transmission of other serious communicable diseases. It also brings California statutes up to date with the current understanding of HIV prevention, treatment and transmission. Specifically, it eliminates several HIV-specific criminal laws that impose harsh and draconian penalties, including for activities that do not risk exposure or transmission of HIV. It would make HIV subject to the laws that apply to other serious communicable diseases, thereby removing discrimination and stigma for people living with HIV, and maintaining public health.

“It’s time for California to reevaluate the way it thinks about HIV and to reduce the stigma associated with the disease,” said Assemblymember Gloria. “Current state law related to those living with HIV is unfair because it is based on the fear and ignorance of a bygone era. With this legislation, California takes an important step to update our laws to reflect the medical advances which no longer make a positive diagnosis equal to a death sentence.”

“As a former prosecutor, I know firsthand the need to get outdated and unscientific laws based on homophobia and fear off the books,” said Assemblymember Chiu. “These laws criminalize and stigmatize people with HIV, and they must be updated.”

Legislators passed a number of laws three decades ago, at the height of the HIV epidemic, that criminalized behaviors of people living with HIV or added HIV-related penalties to existing crimes. These laws were based on fear and on the limited medical understanding of the time. When most of these laws were passed, there were no effective treatments for HIV and discrimination against people living with HIV was rampant.

In the decades since, societal and medical understanding of HIV has greatly improved. Effective treatments dramatically lengthen and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV—treatments that also nearly eliminate the possibility of transmission. In addition, similar treatments are available to HIV-negative people to nearly eliminate risk of infection. Laws criminalizing people with HIV do nothing to further public health and, in fact, stigmatize them, discouraging testing or obtaining necessary medical care. The laws also reduce the likelihood of disclosure of a positive HIV status to sexual partners.

“These laws are disproportionately used against women and people of color, and fuel stigma, violence and discrimination,” said Naina Khanna, executive director of the Positive Women’s Network – USA. “Despite their claims to protect vulnerable communities, these laws actually cause further harm, both to people living with HIV and the broader public.”

HIV criminalization disproportionately affects women and people of color. Forty-three percent of those criminalized under California’s HIV-specific criminal laws are women, despite comprising only 13 percent of people living with HIV in the state. Blacks and Latinos make up two-thirds of people who came into contact with the criminal justice system based on their HIV status, despite comprising only about half of people living with HIV/AIDS in California.

“These laws impose felony penalties and harsh prison sentences on people who have engaged in activities that do not risk transmission and do not endanger public health in any way,” said Rick Zbur, executive director of Equality California. “Modernizing them would reduce discrimination and stigma for people living with HIV. Ending stigma is at the core of ending HIV. Treatment of HIV has entered the 21st century – it’s time for California’s laws to reflect that, as well.”

“Living with HIV should not be a crime in California,” said Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who is the first HIV positive member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and a leader in San Francisco’s Getting to Zero coalition to end all new HIV infections. “That’s why I support Senator Wiener’s legislation.”

In addition to the organizations sponsoring the bill, it is currently supported by CHCR members which include the Los Angeles LGBT Center, the Los Angeles HIV Law and Policy Project, the Transgender Law Center, Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF), the Free Speech Coalition, Sex Workers Outreach Project (SWOP) and Erotic Service Providers Legal, Education, and Research Project (ESPLERP).

Published on East County Today on March 10th, 2017

US: HIV Criminalisation laws will feature heavily in AIDSWatch 2017 conversations with Members of Congress

Every year, AIDSWatch brings together hundreds of people living with HIV and their allies to meet with Members of Congress with the aim of educating them about important issues involving HIV-positive people in the country.

Presented by The Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation, it is the nation’s largest annual constituent-based national HIV advocacy event, and is implemented as a partnership between AIDS United, the Treatment Access Expansion Project, and the US People Living With HIV Caucus.

In order to continue the efforts towards a cure, we must also try and mend social stigma around those living with HIV. But in order to stop new infections and successfully treat those living with the virus, we need compromise and collaboration across all sectors. One of the biggest conversations organizers plan to have at AIDSWatch 2017 centers around HIV criminalization laws.

Last month, a bill was introduced to the California state legislature by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and assembly members Todd Gloria (D-San Diego) and David Chiu (D-San Francisco) aiming to modernize these laws, which criminalize and stigmatize those living with HIV.

The bill was co-sponsored by Equality California, the ACLU California, APLA Health, Black AIDS Institute, Lambda Legal, and Positive Women’s Network. It’s purpose is to repeal all HIV specific laws that criminalize otherwise legal behavior, turning misdemeanors into felonies that put innocent people (like Michael Johnson) in prison simply for being HIV-positive.

“ETAF is putting our hearts into encouraging every state to overturn its criminalization laws,” Laela Wilding, Elizabeth Taylor’s eldest granddaughter and ambassador to ETAF, says to Plus. “Generally speaking it’s about disclosure. The problem with that is in many cases, it becomes a ‘he said, she said’ type of situation where one person may say, ‘yes I disclosed my positive status’ and eventually there’s a possibility that person could come back and accuse them of having not disclosed their status after some kind of sexual encounter or relationship, and then it’s sort of a push and pull. Usually the person who is HIV-positive is the person who is marginalized and often ends up going to jail or prison.”

There are well over 30 states in the United States with laws that discriminate against people with HIV in one form or another, and many of them are written in vague terms so they’re interpreted in different ways. That being said, it becomes incredibly important to monitor the way these laws are written and try to overturn them — much like how Colorado did last year.

Wilding says a major reason for Colorado’s victory was because people in the state were educated on the facts and medical realities of what it means to be living with HIV: that undetectable means uninfectious, yet poz people are stigmatized and marginalized in the criminalization system to almost no mercy.

“[Colorado] overturned those laws by letting people know the facts,” Wilding adds. “Then, almost everyone was behind it. Of course we don’t want to criminalize these people who are living with a disease that is considered treatable to a certain degree. If we can talk about it with our friends, talk about it in the media, I think that state-by-state we can start breaking the stigma down and change these laws. I think once people know about it, they want to help.”

HIV criminalization laws also have an invisible effect on HIV testing. For people who live in a state with these laws, it’s easy for them to brush off an opportunity to get tested. After all, why risk knowing you’re positive if you’re only going to get punished for it? As a result of people being left untested, the number of people living with HIV who don’t know it (and who aren’t getting treated) are left at risk.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one in eight people have the virus and don’t know it. And while a new report shows that annual HIV infections in the U.S. dropped 18 percent between 2008 and 2014, it is still evident that Black men are not only disproportionately effected, but are also the most targeted when it comes to criminalization laws.

“The trans community and women, people of color, these people particularly in California, women in California, are being marginalized and criminalized to an even greater degree and I don’t think people have any idea that this is going on,” Wilding adds. “Once we hear about it, we get fire up. We think, ‘Why is our government spending money criminalizing these people?’ We need to protect them, and support them in the right ways. That would reduce the transmission of HIV, which is the point.”

Elizabeth Taylor’s great-grandson, Wilding’s son, Finn McMurray, spoke to Congressional members last year at AIDSWatch about the importance of sexual health education in schools. According to him, there is still very little conversation about treatment and prevention, especially around PrEP. He hopes that will change.

“Most of my peers unfortunately don’t know about these new, or do not talk about, or haven’t considered for themselves, these new breakthroughs,” the 18-year old activist says. “That’s something to work on, actually informing youth and getting youth to talk about it — not only the issues that have been around for a long time, which are still quite prevalent, but the breakthroughs that are happening now and how those can be utilized.”

McMurray will again ask for a cosponsor of the Real Education for Healthy Youth Act, which aims to fund teacher training on sex education and provide grants for comprehensive sex education. “I think that sexual health education is extremely important to not only the fight against HIV, but all STIs,” he reiterates.”The age group of 15-24 make up half of the new infections each year. I think it’s essential for the next generation to make healthy decisions for themselves. I’d really like to see a shift in the conversation that my generation is having. There’s a lot of potential, but we aren’t as a whole being exposed to enough and being pushed and supported to have these conversations.”

AIDSWatch 2017 will take place from March 27 – 28, 2017 in Washington, D.C.

Canada: Prosecuting HIV: Is it a crime to have sex without disclosing? Public Roundtable in Toronto – Ontario on Feb 3, 2017

Public Roundtable on February 3, 2017 – Prosecuting HIV: Is it a crime to have sex without disclosing?

Posted on January 30, 2017

Prosecuting HIV: Is it a crime to have sex without disclosing? public roundtable discussion will take place:

Friday February 3^rd, 2017, from 3:30 pm to 5:30 pm

Canadiana Gallery – Room 160, 14 Queen’s Park Crescent West, Toronto, Ontario

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that when HIV+ people do not disclose their status to sex partners they are committing a serious crime (often, aggravated sexual assault) if there is a realistic possibility of HIV transmission. Many HIV+ people have been prosecuted and jailed even if their sex partners did not contract HIV. Efforts are now underway to use prosecutorial guidelines and other tools to make Canada’s criminal law less punitive towards HIV+ people, and updated information on these efforts will be presented at the panel.

Roundtable Panelists will include:

Maureen Owino, Director, Committee for Accessible AIDS Treatment
Ryan Peck, Executive Director, HIV&AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO)
Amy Swiffen, Sociology Department, Concordia University, and Visiting Professor at the Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies
Chris Tatham, Sociology Department, University of Toronto

The Panel Moderator is Audrey Macklin, Director, Centre for Criminology & Sociolegal Studies.

All are welcome to attend.

The event poster is available as a pdf on our website: http://www.halco.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/HIV-disclosure-public-roundtable-2017Feb3.pdf.

US: Georgia activists want state lawmakers to revisit HIV criminalisation laws

Activists: Change Georgia laws that unfairly punish HIV-positive people

‘I am not a walking infection. I am a human. Don’t lock me up for who I am’.

SEAN KEENAN

Georgians living with HIV can be locked away for up to a decade for neglecting to inform sexual partners of their status, even if they’ve been told by a doctor that their viral loads are too low to transmit the virus.

Under Georgia law, HIV-positive people are required to tell partners of their status prior to sex. If they don’t, they could be charged and convicted for “reckless conduct” — a felony — even if they don’t transmit the virus. People who divulge such personal info to others can face harsh discrimination, and even violence, for saying they have HIV. In other cases, their privacy could be compromised.

According to the Center for HIV and Law Policy, more than 30 states have laws about prior notification and spitting or biting, even though medical experts say such behavior does little, if anything, to contribute to the transmission of HIV. And Georgia activists who are trying to end HIV stigma want state lawmakers to revisit laws here.

The topic was raised on Nov. 30, the evening before World AIDS Day, at an event organized by advocacy group Georgia Equality. During a panel discussion at the event, four HIV-positive people talked about the stigma that comes with living with the condition.

Nina Martinez, a public health analyst and Georgia Equality activist, said she hasn’t had a relationship in 11 years. That’s because Martinez is worried she could be beaten or criminally charged for merely engaging in romantic endeavors with someone who is not aware of her condition. Martinez told the few dozen people in attendance that, after being sexually assaulted, she kept quiet in fear of “going to prison for my own rape.”

Panel speakers said they’re working with local politicians to create legislation that could reduce the stigma surrounding HIV. Many people don’t know that HIV-positive people taking proper medication can have normal sex lives with virtually no risk of passing the virus to others, said panel moderator Dazon Dixon Diallo, founder and president of SisterLove, an advocacy group focused on African-American women with HIV/AIDS.

Dixon Diallo said appropriate use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, and antiretroviral therapy can now virtually quash the chances of transmission during intercourse or other exchanges of bodily fluids, citing a two-year study of more than 1,000 couples that knew of their partner’s status.

“Treatment is prevention,” said Dr. Richard Rothenberg, associate dean of faculty development and research at Georgia State University’s school of public health. “Getting people on adequate treatment (defined as no detectable viral load) clearly diminishes transmission considerably.”

Georgia has one of the highest diagnosis rates of HIV in the nation. According to a recent study by the Big Cities Health Coalition, metro Atlanta had the country’s second-highest rate of HIV diagnoses, second to Washington, D.C. Nearly half of metro Atlanta cases are in Fulton County.

“So how well has our criminalization law done to drive down [HIV] cases?,” asked Mel Medalle, a SisterLove policy and advocacy advisor. “I don’t think very well.”

To people who aren’t knowledgeable of advancements in HIV treatment and prevention, Dixon Diallo said, “it might seem like these laws are helping people … But there is no sense of agency or responsibility to someone who is not HIV positive.” For example, Martinez said she could be taken to court for not informing a partner of her status prior to having sex, even if she contracts an STD her partner might be carrying in the process. “Complying with the law assumes that disclosure is safe,” she said. “But there’s nothing to stop that guy on a Friday night from giving me syphilis.”

One audience member asked whether a pre-sex, contractual understanding could thwart cases in which people raise issues with the terms of their sexual exploits after the fact. Medalle said having such a document in theory but “in the real world, the stigma would outweigh that every single time.”

Charles Stephens, director of The Counter Narrative Project, an advocacy group supporting gay black men, said HIV criminalization is also used as a means of endorsing homophobic and xenophobic policy. Stephens has followed the case of Michael Johnson, a gay black college wrestler who last summer was jailed after being convicted of transmitting HIV to one man and risking the infection of four others. Johnson was sentenced by a Missouri court to more than 30 years in prison. A Missouri appeals court yesterday ordered he receive a new trial.

“A lot of national organizations are only interested in people with perfect narratives,” Stephens said. “No one was talking about this…If Michael had blonde hair and blue eyes, the cavalry would have come a lot sooner.”

Marxavian Jones, an activist with NAESM, a group that provides education and services for people affected by HIV/AIDS, reminded the crowd that the virus does not discriminate.

“When talking about HIV, it’s not just numbers, these are lives,” Jones said. “People who are married catch HIV. People who have one partner catch HIV. People who have sex for the first time catch HIV. Everyone’s story is different, and it’s unfair to put rules and labels on how people have to share their private and personal information.”

The panelists said they’re working to draft a legislative proposal — they said it’s too early to share specifics — for the upcoming General Assembly to address Georgia’s laws and “decriminalize HIV,” once and for all.

“The H in HIV stands for humans, and we seem to be missing that humanistic approach,” Jones said. “I am not a walking infection. I am a human. Don’t lock me up for who I am.”

Published in Creative Loafing on Dec 21, 2016

US: Discussion about the decriminalisation of HIV takes centre stage at World AIDS day panel in Georgia

A panel of HIV activists and LGBT organizers took aim at laws in Georgia that criminalize people with HIV and can leave them facing prison sentences of up to 20 years.

The discussion about decriminalizing HIV took center stage at a World AIDS Day panel on Nov. 30. People with HIV in Georgia can face a prison term of up to 10 years for having sex with someone without disclosing their HIV status. Even acts like spitting – which do not transmit HIV – are criminalized when directed towards a law enforcement officer with penalties that include up to 20 years of prison time.

Last year, a gay Atlanta man was charged in South Carolina with exposing a sex partner to HIV. Tyler Orr said he did disclose and as the panelists pointed out during the recent discussion, what counts as disclosure and how to avoid “he said, she said” debates in court is unclear.

“What advocates have tried to encourage folks to do in this really unwinnable situation is to have a notarized document or affidavit before you engage in one of these punishable acts,” Mel Medalle of SisterLove told the crowd of about 40 people.

“Which almost never happens, but that is how extreme and absurd this situation is,” Medalle added.

Nina Martinez, a member of the Coalition to End HIV Criminalization in Georgia, pointed out that disclosure laws can also create safety risks for people with HIV.

“Every single time, especially as a woman, every single time, it’s me risking my personal safety,” Martinez said.

Marxavian Jones, who serves as one of Georgia Equality’s Youth HIV Policy Advisors, echoed agreed with Martinez.

“Who is going to defend me when I disclose my status to someone and they take it to social media and decide they want to tell everybody,” Jones said.

The Center for HIV Law & Policy has pointed to the increased risk of intimate partner violence that can come with disclosure, writing that disclosure can “provide an additional excuse, or cover, for physical violence.”

The ongoing stigma of HIV-positive individuals also means that – as Jones pointed out – a disgruntled lover posting a partner’s HIV status to social media can have real consequences, including job loss or being outed to family.

During the National HIV Prevention Conference in Atlanta last year, public health experts and HIV activists argued that rather than criminalizing HIV-positive people, and adding to the stigma they face, people with HIV should be pushed to treatment options.

At the recent panel, participants also highlighted legislation being drafted by the Coalition to End HIV Criminalization in Georgia. The coalition is currently reaching out to legislators to find a sponsor for the bill.

“[The legislation is] so we can repeal, which would completely get rid of it,” Medalle said. “The other option would be to reform it, so to make changes to it but to ultimately have some semblance of it.”

While Medalle said it may seem like a “no brainer that we wouldn’t want this [law],” stigma and other means of criminalizing HIV-positive individuals makes the issue more complicated. In Texas and a handful of other states, there are no specific statutes that target people with HIV but they are still prosecuted under other laws including reckless endangerment.

Reforming the law means that advocates can create better standards for prosecutions, and can “craft a law that comports with modern HIV science, what we know about the routes of transmission,” Medalle said.

Martinez, who is a member of the coalition, said the HIV criminalization law in Georgia also falls short in other aspects.

“The law in Georgia doesn’t require intent to infect, it doesn’t require likelihood of transmission because it has things like spit, urine, feces in it. It doesn’t require transmission,” Martinez said.

The Georgia law also doesn’t take into account issues like condom usage or advising a partner to take PEP (post-exposure prophylaxis) after sexual intercourse – acts which reduce the likelihood of transmission. The reforms to the law would change that, the panelists said.

Emily Halden Brown, a Georgia Equality field organizer who organized the panel discussion, said the event highlighted how people with HIV are impacted by it.

“I think the most valuable moment in all of the discussions I’ve ever been a part of on this, are the moments where people living with HIV share the stories of how they are directly impacted,” Brown said. “Anytime someone shares their personal story you can just feel the change in the audience.”

The event was hosted by Georgia Equality, SisterLove, and The Counter Narrative Project at Gallery 874. The panel discussion coincided with the “Living With” art exhibit, which featured art about the experiences of living with HIV. A closing reception helped raise funds for Georgia Equality’s HIV policy work.

Published in Project Q on Dec 12, 2016