US: Bill introduced in Illinois to reform HIV criminalisation law

Advocates and Legislators Introduce Bill to Decriminalize HIV in Illinois

Legislation was introduced in Springfield today to end criminal penalties against people living with HIV (PLWH), which serve only to stigmatize and discriminate against PLWH. Current Illinois law makes legal behavior – like consensual sex – illegal, and adds harsh penalties for ordinarily minor crimes such as sharing injection-drug equipment. Under current law, PLWH face the threat of arrest, prosecution, and incarceration even if they do not transmit HIV to another person.

“The truth is HIV criminalization does not improve safety or public health in Illinois – instead, it often has the opposite effect. Not a single study throughout the country shows HIV criminalization has reduced HIV transmission in any jurisdiction where it exists. We have also seen through the decades how HIV criminalization laws disproportionately impact women and the Black community. It is time to repeal this destructive law,” said State Senator Robert Peters, Senate legislative sponsor.

“A person living with HIV/AIDS already encounters difficult health disparities. However, the damage that Illinois’ HIV criminalization law has on people living with HIV is even more than the lifelong impact of the criminal justice system, especially for people of color and the LGBTQ+ community. It is harm that happens every day, slowly, to our community’s mental and emotional health by being singled out and stigmatized,” said Christian F. Castro, steering committee member of the Illinois HIV Action Alliance (IHAA).

“As a national network of women and people of trans experience living with HIV, Positive Women’s Network – USA is thrilled at this opportunity to end the discriminatory and unjust HIV criminalization law in Illinois. HIV criminalization laws are often justified as somehow protecting women; in reality, they are too commonly used by abusive partners to control and coerce women and trans folks living with HIV. They have done nothing to reduce HIV transmission over the past 45 years but they have done much to promote stigma and cause suffering to people living with HIV, their families and their communities,” said Breanna Diaz, Policy Director, Positive Women’s Network – USA.

“The Illinois Public Health Association (IPHA) recognizes that these outdated, dangerous and discriminatory laws disproportionately impact Black, Indigenous, Latinx and other persons of color. To ensure an equitable state for Black and Brown individuals and to promote science-based and proven HIV public health strategies of testing, prevention and engagement in care, it’s essential lawmakers repeal Illinois’ HIV criminalization law. Illinois’ HIV criminalization law is rooted in fear and racial biases, and we certainly know that criminalization increases stigma and harms in marginalized communities,” said Chris Wade, Illinois Public Health Association.

Senate Bill 655 would amend the Criminal Code of 2012, repeal the statute creating the offense of criminal transmission of HIV, and make conforming changes in the AIDS Confidentiality Act, the Illinois Sexually Transmissible Disease Control Act, the Illinois Vehicle Code, the Criminal Code of 2012, and the Unified Code of Corrections.

Advocacy organizations who have joined the Illinois HIV Action Alliance coalition and have signed on to support SB 655 include: ACLU of Illinois, African-American Lesbian Professionals Having A Say (A.L.P.H.A.S.), AIDS Foundation Chicago, Angii’s Angel’s, Brothers Health Collective, Calor, Central Illinois Friends, Chicago House and Social Services, Chicago Recovery Alliance, Community Renewal Society (CRS), Equality Illinois, Howard Brown Health, Illinois Public Health Association, Lambda Legal, Legal Council for Health Justice, Peoria Proud, Prairie Pride Coalition, Pride Action Tank (a project of AFC), QC PRIDE, INC., Rush University System for Health, Sinai Infectious Disease Center, Sex Workers Outreach Program (SWOP), The Sero Project, TPAN, Transformative Justice Law Project, and Women Connection (a project of AFC).

You can read the language for Senate Bill 655 here.

WATCH! From Moment to Movement: HIV Justice Live! Ep 3 – Oslo Declaration 9th Anniversary

From Moment to Movement: HIV Justice Live! celebrates the Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation

The 3rd episode of HIV Justice Live! aired on Wednesday, February 17, to celebrate nine years since the publication of the historic Oslo Declaration on HIV Criminalisation. Hosted by HIV Justice Network’s Edwin J Bernard, the show featured some of the advocates who were behind the Oslo Declaration.

Kim Fangen, co-organiser of the side-meeting that finalised the Oslo Declaration, and who was the only person openly living with HIV on the Norwegian Law Commission, revealed that the Declaration was initially conceived as an advocacy tool to influence policy discussions in Norway as well as neighbouring Nordic countries.

Patrick Eba, now UNAIDS Country Director in the Central African Republic, explained that the reason the meeting took place in Oslo was because the Norwegian Government had supported UNAIDS to produce detailed guidance on how countries should deal with the overly broad use of the criminal law to HIV non-disclosure, exposure and transmission, by examining scientific, medical and legal issues.

Former ARASA ED, Michaela Clayton, now a member of HJN’s Supervisory Board, said the Oslo Declaration was the first time there was a coming together of activists from both the global north and south around HIV criminalisation. She noted that although there had been some work done regionally and in-country, this was the first global solidarity statement around HIV criminalisation.

Ralf Jürgens, now Senior Coordinator of Human Rights at The Global Fund, who attended the Oslo meeting in an advisory capacity, spoke about his relief and delight that the work that he and others had done as part of the ‘first-wave’ of advocacy against HIV criminalisation was now being undertaken by the HIV Justice Network. Jürgens currently oversees the innovative Global Fund initiative, Breaking Down Barriers, which supports 20 countries to remove human rights-related barriers to health services for HIV, TB malaria, and COVID-19. He said the Global Fund has invested resources to fight laws and policies and discrimination overall and ensure access to justice. He added that the HIV Justice Worldwide movement now plays an “incredibly important” part in this work by providing global leadership and a wide range of advocacy resources.

There was a surprise appearance by Susan Timberlake, who was UNAIDS’ Senior Human Rights Advisor when the Oslo meetings took place. She recognised the Oslo Declaration as the moment that the global movement around HIV criminalisation began. Susan recalled the main meeting fell on Valentine’s Day and participants made posters with “make love, not criminal laws” messaging.

Our regular Mind the Gap segment featured Ellie Ballan, a member of our Global Advisory Panel, who is based in Lebanon. He was interviewed by Julian Hows, HJN’s Partnerships and Governance Co-ordinator.

The Oslo Declaration, has so far, garnered over 1750 signatories from more than 115 countries and been translated into nine different languages, the most recent being Latvian and Turkish. It was also the template for the Mexican Declaration in 2017. Pozitif Dayanışma, an HIV organisation based in Turkey recently translated the Declaration into Turkish, as well as producing an accompanying info-graphic and social media pack.

Further, the Oslo Declaration has been referred to as key guidance on HIV criminalisation from global organisations such as UNAIDS, Amnesty International, and PEPFAR/USAID, cited in several peer-reviewed journals and used as a strategic planning and advocacy tool all over the world. The Declaration has also been featured in high-profile media, such as the New York Times, the Huffington Post, and POZ magazine.

US: Bipartisan effort to modernize Georgia’s HIV laws

Republican lawmaker wants to modernize Georgia’s HIV laws

A Republican state lawmaker leads a bipartisan effort to modernize the state’s HIV laws, which critics say aren’t rooted in science and stigmatize people living with HIV.

Sen. Chuck Hufstetler, a Republican from Rome, introduced Senate Bill 164 on Feb. 11. The measure would require prosecutors to show a person charged with exposing someone to HIV through sex had an “intent to transmit HIV” and posed a “significant risk of transmission” based on current science.

Current Georgia law makes it a crime for people living with HIV to have sex or donate blood without disclosing their status, regardless of whether they intend to transmit HIV or pose any risk. It’s a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. State law also criminalizes spitting at or using bodily fluids on law enforcement or corrections officers by a person living with HIV, an offense that can carry up to 20 years in prison.

Hufstetler’s bill removes criminal penalties for people living with HIV who share needles, donate blood or spit at or use bodily fluids on police and corrections officers. The proposal also changes state law to refer to people “living with HIV” instead of “an HIV infected person.”

HIV advocates and LGBTQ activists applaud the bill. They began working to change the state’s HIV criminalization laws as early as 2013.

“It is absolutely encouraging,” said Eric Paulk, deputy director of Georgia Equality. “It shows that the years of advocating around this issue are starting to pay off. Folks under the Gold Dome are understanding that these laws are born out of an era and time when evidence-based knowledge about HIV risk and transmission and treatment therapy were extremely limited. This is a huge move in the right direction.”

Georgia is one of some three-dozen states that criminalize a lack of HIV disclosure, whether or not the specific act actually exposed the sex partner to HIV. The legislation keeps intentional HIV exposure as a felony, but it lowers the maximum prison sentence from 10 years to five.

“Of the potential seven charges that someone living with HIV could face under the current statute, this would eliminate five of them,” Paulk said. “There will be a shift in the concept of exposure to intent to transmit, which would allow for significant improvement over what we currently have.”

Last year, a House committee approved similar HIV modernization legislation. That measure – House Bill 719 from Rep. Deborah Silcox, a Sandy Springs Republican – failed to advance during a legislative session disrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Paulk said the continued bipartisan support for efforts to decriminalize HIV is encouraging.

“Folks are understanding that these laws are bad and harmful and that they don’t do the things they are intended to do, which is lower the number of transmissions that are happening,” he said.

Hufstetler’s bill was assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Co-sponsors include Sen. Kay Kilpatrick, a Republican from Marietta, and Sens. Nan Orrock and Gloria Butler, both Democrats from Atlanta.

In 2019, Kilpatrick was the Senate sponsor of legislation creating a syringe services program to allow people who inject drugs to exchange used needles for clean ones. Such programs reduce the spread of HIV and hepatitis C, according to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention. Gov. Brian Kemp signed that measure – House Bill 217 – into law.

US: Virginia’s bill to reform the state’s infected sexual battery law will also broaden its scope to include all STIs

Lawmakers weigh how far to go in changing a decades-old law criminalizing HIV

Thirty years ago, HIV was largely considered to be a death sentence.

At a time when the disease was little-understood, even within the health care community, Virginia joined dozens of states in passing laws that criminalized “infected sexual battery” — making it a felony for someone living with HIV, syphilis or Hepatitis B to engage in sexual activity “with the intent to transmit the infection to another person.”

Sen. Jennifer McClellan, D-Richmond, said Virginia, like many states, was driven by the federal government. In 1990, national lawmakers passed the Ryan White CARE Act, which established federal funding for HIV services and treatment. But to receive the funding, states were required to create a legal mechanism to prosecute people who knowingly exposed others to HIV.

Virginia passed its own statute in 1997, making infected sexual battery a Class 6 felony and nondisclosure — or having sex with someone without revealing your status — a Class 1 misdemeanor. Twenty-four years later, McClellan has joined with Sen. Mamie Locke, D-Hampton, in an effort to modernize the law.

Finding consensus with other legislators, though, has been a challenge.Their bill to reform the state’s infected sexual battery law passed the Senate late on Friday in a 21-17 vote, with Republicans voting unanimously against the bill. But to gain support among Democrats, McClellan also had to offer a late floor amendment that revised the code section rather than fully repealing it.

“It’s clear to us that a lot of members of the Senate aren’t comfortable completely eliminating that crime,” she said in an interview on Friday morning. The substitute reduces the potential charge for infected sexual battery from a Class 6 felony to a Class 1 misdemeanor. At the same time, it also broadens the scope of the law, removing its specific focus on HIV, syphilis, and Hepatitis B.

The legislation would now make it a potential misdemeanor if a Virginian diagnosed with any sexually transmitted infection “engages in sexual behavior that poses a substantial risk of transmission” with the intent of transmitting the disease. And unlike the current code, it would require actual transmission of the disease in order to prosecute.

Expanding the law to include all STIs might seem counterintuitive for a bill aimed at decriminalizing HIV. But the intent of the substitute was to raise the burden of prosecution, making it less likely that the law will be used, said Breanna Diaz, the policy director for the Positive Women’s Network, anational advocacy group for women and transgender people living with HIV. The group is lobbying to repeal or modernize HIV criminalization laws in more than 30 states. Diaz, who drafted the substitute, said it’s similar to a 2017 bill passed in California.

Currently, Virginia code only criminalizes transmission of HIV and two other previously life-threatening infections — a focus that advocates say only furthers the stigma for Virginians diagnosed with the virus. But it also requires little burden of proof for people who press charges.

Virginia’s infected sexual battery statute doesn’t require that the disease was actually transmitted. It also criminalizes sexual activity regardless of whether a person living with HIV used protection, such as condoms, or medication that made their risk of transmitting the virus virtually nonexistent.

“What it really does is criminalize just knowing your status and engaging in sexual activity even if it poses low-to-no risk of infection,” Diaz said. The substitute bill would introduce several measures to raise the burden of prosecution.

First, anyone charged under the statute would need to have been diagnosed with an STI prior to sexual contact (some common infections such as chlamydia and gonorrhea don’t always cause symptoms and can be transmitted unknowingly). It would also require that the person engaged in activity that posed “a substantial risk of transmission,” such as having sex without protection.

Most importantly, there would have to be proof that the infection was actually transmitted to a partner.

“It is our core belief that criminalization will never be the answer to public health,” Diaz said. “But we wanted to build in elements that would raise the burden of prosecution. And we’re hoping with the prosecutorial burden being so high now, this statute will not be used too often.”

Infected sexual battery charges are already relatively rare. In the 2019 and 2020 fiscal years, only three Virginians were convicted of a felony under the law, according to data from the Virginia Criminal Sentencing Commission. Another seven were convicted of a misdemeanor for not disclosing their status (McClellan’s substitute would completely repeal that section of the code).

And while the original intent was to completely repeal Virginia’s infected sexual battery law, McClellan described the amended bill as a compromise that would make it easier to pass the General Assembly. Throughout the committee process, there was clear bipartisan hesitancy to eliminate a law that makes it a crime to intentionally infect someone with HIV.

“I can’t for the life of me figure out why we would want to repeal that,” said Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, during a hearing last month.

“The science has dramatically improved the diagnosis for HIV and it makes sense for us to look at changes in the law,” added Sen. Creigh Deeds, D-Bath. “But I agree with Sen. Obenshain — if someone intentionally infects someone else, there ought to be some criminal penalty.”

Like many of the criminal justice initiatives moving through the state’s General Assembly, inequity is another major argument against the bill. In Virginia, 56.7 percent of people living with HIV are Black, according to data from Emory University (Black Virginians make up just 19.1 percent of the state’s population overall). Black and Latino men are 5.5 and 2.2 times more likely, respectively, to be living with an HIV diagnosis than White men, while Black and Latino women are 15.1 and 4.1 times more likely to be living with a diagnosis than their White counterparts.

The disease also has a disproportionate impact on the LGBTQ community. As a result, advocates say HIV criminalization laws, in Virginia and across the country, are most frequently applied against already marginalized groups with existing mistrust of the health care system.

“Folks charged under these laws are already over-criminalized, over-policed and over-surveilled,” Diaz said. And with few barriers to pressing charges under Virginia’s current statute, proving “intent” to transmit the disease — or a claim of nondisclosure — can be difficult to demonstrate in court.

But stories about the charges often end up in the news, which can out people living with HIV even if they’re not founded. Deirdre Johnson and Cedric Pulliam, co-founders of the decriminalization advocacy group ECHO Virginia, said one of their members chose to plead guilty after a partner accused him of nondisclosure after an argument.

“Next thing you know, the police are knocking at his door and he’s getting arrested,” Johnson said. The member had never been involved with the criminal justice system and took a plea deal. As a result, he lost his social work license and still has to disclose felony charges on job applications.

For advocates, it’s a prime example of how the potential repercussions of the law — and the stigma — make it less likely that people will seek out help for HIV.

“When people are afraid they’ll be putting a target on their back for criminal prosecution, they don’t get tested and they don’t get treated,” McClellan said.

The bill would also repeal a section of state code that requires Virginians convicted of prostitution or intravenous drug use to be tested for HIV, instead making it an option. And it would repeal the state’s current ban against patients with HIV donating organs, with notice and consent, in certain circumstances — putting Virginia in line with federal guidance.

But even the amended bill didn’t convince some senators that it’s time to repeal the law. Sen. Siobhan Dunnavant, R-Henrico — a practicing OB-GYN — said during a floor debate that diagnosing women with HIV and other sexually transmitted infections was “one of the hardest conversations” she ever had to have.

“And I wish I could support this bill, but I cannot diminish in any way the consequences for a woman who has been intentionally infected,” she said before the vote. The Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police also opposes the legislation.

“We haven’t followed this bill that closely, and don’t understand why it was introduced,” Executive Director Dana Schrad wrote in an email on Tuesday. “We have had cases in which a person knowingly and intentionally infected someone else through a sexual assault.”

Both Johnson and Pulliam, though, said it would make prosecuting the law much more difficult by requiring that anyone charged with the crime had actually transmitted the virus. For Johnson, a woman living with HIV, it also acknowledges the advances in treatment since 1997.

With current therapies, patients are now capable of leading long, healthy lives. Antiretroviral drugs can also reduce a patient’s viral load to the point where it’s undetectable — leaving “effectively no risk” of transmitting the virus to an HIV-negative sexual partner, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

“There is zero risk of me transmitting HIV to anyone,” she said. “We just really wanted our laws to be in alignment with science.”

Zimbabwe: Criminal law amendment increases fines for “deliberate transmission of HIV”, classified at highest level of offences

Lockdown fines revised upwards

Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief

Members of the public who violate lockdown regulations now risk paying a spot fine of $5 000 while those found guilty of deliberately transmitting HIV can pay up to $1,6 million.

Fines have been reviewed upwards with immediate effect.

The new fine schedule is contained in Statutory Instrument (SI) 25 of 2021 issued on Monday by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs.

Level 14 offences, the highest level of offences, now attract a fine of $1,6 million up from $800 000 and include crimes such as concealing treason, deliberately transmitting HIV, robbery which is not committed in aggravating circumstances.

“It is hereby notified that the minister has, in terms of section 280 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 made the following notice.

This notice may be cited as the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) (Standard Scale of Fines) Notice 2021,” the SI read.

“The First Schedule to the Codification and Reform Act Chapter 9:23 is repealed and substituted by the following. Level 1-ZWL$1 000,
level 2- ZWL$2 000, level 3- ZWL$5 000 level 4- ZWL$20 000, level 5- ZWL$30 000, level 6- ZWL$60 000 and level 7- ZWL$120 00.”

“Levels eight to fourteen shall attract the following fines respectively ZWL$200 000, ZWL$240 000 ZWL$280 000, ZWL$400 000, ZWL$800 000, ZWL$1 200 000 and ZWL$1 600 000. The criminal law codification and reform Standard scale of fines notice 2020 published Statutory Instrument 272 of 2020 is repealed.”

Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs permanent secretary Mrs Virginia Mabhiza confirmed the new fines.

“Yes, those are the new fine like level 14 which is the highest. But the rightful person to comment on this is the Chief Magistrate Mr Munamato Mutevedzi who deals with these offences every day,” she said.

Mr Mutevedzi could not be reached immediately.

Prominent Gweru Lawyer Mr Esau Mandipa said the new fines were justified in the light of the surge in armed robbery cases among others.
He said at the same time, there was need to punish Covid-19 lockdown offenders to stop the spread of the virus.
“What this means is that both offences minor and serious in terms of the code now attract heavier penalties in forms of fines. My advice to fellow citizens is to comply with the law.

“Crimes like armed robbery lead to unnecessary loss of life and Covid-19 is causing the death of many people.

“So it is just common cause that we behave and follow the laid down rules and regulations that are aimed at protecting us,” said Mr Mandipa.

US: North Dakota Legislature rejects bill to modernise outdated HIV-criminalisation law

North Dakota lawmakers reject bill to soften HIV transmission law

The bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Gretchen Dobervich, D-Fargo, said the penalty for knowingly transmitting HIV is unfairly harsh and doesn’t align with the infractions North Dakotans face if they willfully infect someone with any other sexually transmitted disease, such as hepatitis or syphilis.

BISMARCK — The Republican-led North Dakota House of Representatives widely rejected a bill on Wednesday, Jan. 13, that would have lessened the penalty for knowingly transmitting HIV.

Currently, residents who consciously infect a sexual partner with the virus could face a Class A felony, which comes with up to 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. House Bill 1106 would have made the offense an infraction, which carries a fine up to $1,000 and no jail time.

All but one Republican on the House Judiciary Committee voted to give the bill a “Do Not Pass” recommendation on Tuesday, Jan. 12, because they believed an infraction for transmitting HIV was not a harsh enough punishment.

Only three people have been convicted with a felony under the current law.

There were an estimated 468 North Dakota residents with HIV in 2019, but 80% are virally suppressed, meaning they are very unlikely to transmit the virus, according to the state Department of Health.

Year in review: Celebrating successes, highlighting the many challenges ahead

This past year has shown us what happens when one pandemic – HIV – is overshadowed by another pandemic, COVID-19. Despite the many lessons learned from our collective advocacy against HIV criminalisation that we and our HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE partners highlighted in March, these lessons were mostly ignored by policymakers around the world.

The result was a series of knee-jerk legal, policy and police responses leading to the overzealous policing of people living with HIV and other key and inadequately served populations already subject to existing inequalities in law and policy, which we have been highlighting in our HIV Justice Weekly newsletter since March.

This latest pandemic overshadowed, and in some cases undermined, the work we and others have been doing to ensure a fair, just, rational and evidence-based response towards people living with HIV by the criminal justice system.

This past year we documented at least 90 cases of unjust HIV criminalisation in 25 countries, with Russia and the United States being the worse offenders. Women living with HIV were accused in 25% of those cases. Three of these cases were for breastfeeding. In the United States, more than 50% of those accused in HIV criminalisation cases were people of colour.

2020 also saw Poland passing a new law against COVID-19 that also increased the criminal penalty for HIV exposure, and number of disappointing HIV criminalisation higher court appeals in the US (Ohio), and Canada (Ontario and Alberta) that appeared to ignore science over stigma.

And yet, despite the many difficulties of 2020, the movement to end unjust HIV criminalisation has continued to gain momentum.

In the United States, Washington State modernised its HIV-specific criminal law in March, reducing the ‘crime’ from a felony to a misdemeanour, adding in a number of defences, and eliminating the sex offender registration requirement. Earlier this month, legislators in Missouri published plans to modernise its HIV-specific criminal law next year.

In Europe, Sweden abolished the legal requirement to disclose HIV status in March, the Spanish Supreme Court set an important precedent for HIV criminalisation cases in May, and in June, Scottish police ended the stigmatising practice of marking people living with HIV as ‘contagious’ in their database.

In Francophone Africa, HIV-specific criminal law reform in Benin and across the region is looking likely thanks to a recognition that existing laws do not reflect up-to-date science.

And in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, a process to completely abolish the draconian HIV-specific criminal law in Belarus has begun.

There is still so much more to do, however. Despite these successes, as well as the many milestones the HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE movement has achieved since its launch in 2016, we will not rest until everyone living with HIV in all their diversity is treated equally, fairly and justly by all actors of the criminal justice system.

Belarus: Process to abolish HIV criminalisation statutes in Belarus criminal code has been launched

On improvement of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus and the exclusion of Article 157 “HIV infection”

Translation via Deepl.com – For article in Russian, please scroll down.

People PLUS in action

The legal environment for HIV-positive people will be further improved. The process has been launched. On the eve of December 1 a letter from the Deputy Chairman of the Permanent Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus A.V. Dubov was received by the Public Association “PLUS People”.

“I would like to inform you that the proposals to make amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus in the part of abolishment of articles 157 and 158 that were received from the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus in my address have been considered together with interested state bodies. Proposals to repeal Articles 157 and 158 have been sent for consideration and taken into account in the course of finalizing the draft laws.

Proposals to amend the Criminal Code were formed at the Round Table “Maintenance of the status of elimination of HIV transmission from mother to child. Amendments to the Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus in the part of abolition of articles 157 and 158”, which was held on September 28, 2020 with the participation of Deputies of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Deputy Minister and heads of departments of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Belarus, country offices of UNAIDS and WHO, the Republican associations of the Belarusian Red Cross Society and Public Association “PLUS People”.

In their presentation, “PLUS People” RSO told the participants of the Round Table about the benefits that the improvement of legislation will bring to society.

“The qualification of crimes related to HIV infection, not according to a special article, but according to the articles for harm to health and how the cases of private and public prosecution will develop in the society a culture of caring about each person’s own health and measures to prevent HIV infection and other diseases”.

People will no longer be afraid to know their HIV status and will be bravely tested for HIV.

People living with HIV:

After learning the diagnosis, they will not avoid being registered at the dispensary.
be able to exercise their right to establish a family and have children without fear
will not be victims of blackmail, extortion and intimidation
We express our gratitude to the brave people who dared to tell the audience of the Round Table their life stories about how they faced stigma and discrimination, thereby confirming and strengthening the arguments for the exclusion of Article 157 from the Criminal Code of RB, cited by ROO “PLUS People”.

О совершенствовании Уголовного кодекса РБ и исключении ст. 157 «Заражение ВИЧ»

Люди ПЛЮС в действии 07 декабря 2020 Просмотров: 84

Правовая среда в отношении ВИЧ-положительных людей будет дальше совершенствоваться. Процесс запущен. Накануне 1 декабря в адрес РОО “Люди ПЛЮС” пришло письмо от Заместителя председателя Постоянной комиссии по национальной безопасности Палаты представителей Национального собрания Республики Беларусь А.В. Дубова.

«Информирую о том, что поступившие из Министерства здравоохранения Республики Беларусь в мой адрес предложения о внесении изменений в Уголовный кодекс Республики Беларусь в части отмены статей 157 и 158 рассмотрены совместно с заинтересованными государственными органами.Принимая во внимание, что в Министерстве юстиции Республики Беларусь создана межведомственная рабочая группа по подготовке проектов кодексов об уголовной ответственности, в рамках деятельности которой предполагается изучение основных направлений совершенствования Уголовного, Уголовно-процессуального и Уголовно-исполнительных кодексов. Предложения в части отмены статей 157 и 158 направлены для рассмотрения и учета их в ходе доработки законопроектов».

Предложения о внесении изменений в Уголовный кодекс были сформированы на Круглом столе «Поддержание статуса элиминации передачи ВИЧ от матери ребёнку. Внесение изменений в УК РБ в части отмены статей 157 и 158», прошедшем 28 сентября 2020 г. с участием Депутатов Палаты представителей Национального собрания Республики Беларусь , Заместителя Министра и руководителей управлений Министерства здравоохранения РБ, страновых офисов ЮНЭЙДС и ВОЗ, Республиканских объединений «Белорусского Общества Красного Креста» и РОО «Люди ПЛЮС».

РОО «Люди ПЛЮС» в своей презентации рассказывали участникам Круглого стола о том, какую пользу совершенствование законодательства принесёт обществу.

«Квалификация преступлений в связи с заражением ВИЧ , не по специально выделенной статье, а по статьям за причинение вреда здоровью и, как дела частного и частно-публичного обвинения будут развивать в обществе культуру заботы каждого человека о собственном здоровье и мерах профилактики заражения как ВИЧ-инфекции, так и других заболеваний».

Люди перестанут боятся узнать свой ВИЧ-статус и будут смело тестироваться на ВИЧ.

Люди, живущие с ВИЧ:

узнав диагноз, не станут избегать постановки на диспансерный учёт
без страха смогут реализовывать право на создание семьи и рождение детей
не станут жертвами шантажа, вымогательства и запугиваний

Выражаем благодарность смелым людям, которые решились рассказать аудитории Круглого стола свои жизненные истории, о том как они столкнулись со стигмой и дискриминацией, тем самым подтверждая и усиливая аргументы за исключение ст. 157 из УК РБ, приведённые РОО “Люди ПЛЮС”.

US: Advocates in Nevada work to repeal or amend laws that criminalise the behaviour of People living with HIV

Civil Rights Groups Look To Modernize Nevada’s HIV Laws

LISTEN Download

Zachary Green

Today is World AIDS Day.

An international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic and remembering those who have died from the disease.

Civil and LGBTQ+ rights groups across Nevada are pushing for the state to modernize laws concerning people living with HIV.

Nevada is one of 32 states that criminalizes the behavior of people living with HIV, making it a class-B felony for someone knowingly having HIV to engage in behavior that could transmit the virus to someone else.

But groups in the state want to change those laws so the disease is treated like other communicable diseases where people who knowingly spread it can face misdemeanor charges, not a felony.

“We have a lot of work to do to modernize our laws so that people living with HIV are faced with stigmas, and also so that these HIV laws that criminalize behavior aren’t having a negative effect on public health goals,” said Andre Wade, state director for Silver State Equality.

Wade explained that the state and the nation have plans to help end the HIV/AIDS epidemic but people who have the disease need to be engaged to execute those plans and to get them to be engaged they need to not feel stigmatized when they reveal their status.

“If we are stigmatizing them and criminalizing them, it is hard to engage them in plans to help end the epidemic,” he said.

Wade said the laws like the ones in Nevada were passed when less was known about the disease, and people were looking for ways to take HIV positive people out of society.

“These laws were created when we knew very little about HIV and AIDS and there was a lot of fear about homosexuality and a lot of misinformation,” he said.

In addition, Wade said someone is more likely to transmit the disease if they don’t know their status than if they do.

Stephan Page is the co-chair of NV HIV Modernization Coalition. He said there have been a few instances around the country of someone knowingly and intentionally spreading the disease, and there have been more cases of innocent people being charged with spreading the disease.

“Across the country, tons of people living with HIV got convicted for engaging in behavior where they truly can’t transmit HIV,” Page said.

Page said some people have been convicted under these kinds of laws even though they are on anti-viral medication and have a very low viral load in their bodies, and therefore, can’t transmit. There are also cases of people using protection during sex but still getting convicted because the judge didn’t believe them.

Plus, bad information about how the virus is transmitted still hurts innocent people. Page said there are cases of people who have been convicted of knowingly spreading HIV because they spit on someone. HIV cannot be transmitted through saliva.

Governor Steve Sisolak last year signed a bill that will review Nevada’s HIV laws.

Page said his coalition went through Nevada statutes and found 13 laws impacting HIV positive people that they want to be repealed or amended. Four of those statutes are the main ones the coalition is focusing on.

Besides the part of the law that makes transmitting HIV a felony, the coalition wants to change the part of the law that covers intent.

“We recommend that this law be amended so that actual intent is truly required,” he said, “We want to ensure that yes true criminals who are intentionally, willingly and knowingly going around transmitting HIV are still getting convicted, but we want to ensure that innocent people do not fall through the cracks and get wrongfully convicted.”

They also want to see a change to the laws around sex work. Legal sex workers in Nevada cannot work in brothels if they have an HIV positive diagnosis.

Illegal sex workers will get a felony enhancement if they are HIV positive. The coalition wants to get rid of that enhancement for people who are living with HIV and performing illegal sex work.

Much of the effort to reform or repeal Nevada laws impacting people living with HIV is to change the stigma around the disease.

Connie Shearer is the co-chair of the NV HIV Modernization Coalition. She also lives with the virus. In 1996, she contracted HIV from her husband when she was 19. She was 21 when she was diagnosed.

Now, years later, Shearer still faces a stigma.

“The stigma is – I don’t want to say it’s as bad as 1996 – but it’s almost just as bad,” she said.

Shearer said she’ll share up-to-date information about HIV, like the fact that someone using anti-HIV medication with undetectable levels of the virus means he or she can’t transmit it, online and people won’t believe her.

“What’s important for me today is making sure people have access to the science around HIV so they know that whenever they’re diagnosed they don’t have to give up anything. Your life does not have to change at all, except that you take some medication now and that’s it,” she said.

Guests:

Andre Wade, State Director, Silver State Equality; Connie Shearer, Co-Chair, NV HIV Modernization Coalition; Stephan Page, Co-Chair, NV HIV Modernization Coalition

Benin: Expert Consensus Statement on the Science of HIV in the Context of Criminal Law frames discussions on HIV criminalisation law reform in Benin and across Francophone Africa

UNDP brings together experts to review Law 2005-31 of 10 April 2006 on HIV/AIDS

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) organized, this Tuesday, November 10, 2020 at L’Infosec in Cotonou, a workshop to exchange and share information on scientific data on HIV in the context of criminal law.

This meeting which brought together several experts, has the main objective of exchanging and sharing information on issues and reforms inherent to the criminalization of HIV in the world in general and Benin in particular with regard to the consensus statement of experts.

Specifically, the aim was to make the participants familiar with and take ownership of the experts’ consensus statement, understand the issues of HIV criminalization, and analyze the impact of this statement on HIV laws around the world, in particular in francophone Africa and Benin.

On the agenda of the meeting was the law N° 2005- 31 of April 10, 2006 on the prevention, care and control of HIV and AIDS in the Republic of Benin.

On this occasion, the Deputy Coordinator of the Health Program for the Fight against AIDS, Dr. Bachabi Moussa was delighted to start the process of revising the law on HIV prevention and care in Benin.

For him, this law deserves to be updated in view of the evolution of HIV/AIDS.

For her part, Joséphine Kanakin, UNDP Gender, Human Rights and HIV/AIDS Program Officer, said that the law needs to be reviewed through exchanges and sharing of important and scientific information in order to adapt it to reality.

Opening the workshop, the Executive Secretary of the National Council for the Fight against AIDS (CNLS), Tuberculosis and Hepatitis, Melchior Aïssi insisted on the fruitful exchanges between the experts.

He specified that the consensus of the experts in the context of positive criminal law is calmed down to the Beninese positive law. “Our wish and the wish of the government is to humanize HIV/AIDS because in the existing laws are the crucibles of stigmatization and discrimination.

“AIDS should be considered like any other disease that can be treated anywhere and anytime, it would be much more humanized. Let the health facilities be able to welcome them everywhere and in all services. Giving a specific place for their treatment is already a stigma,” he suggested.

UNDP Deputy Resident Representative José Herman Wabo expressed his organization’s expectations.
“We want to fill a gap in the existing legal framework to provide a comprehensive legal framework to support people affected by HIV/AIDS. Beyond a simple workshop, these are exchanges that will affect the lives of some people by providing solutions.

Gatien ELEGBEDE

Le PNUD réunit des experts pour la révision de la Loi 2005-31 du 10 avril 2006 sur le VIH/Sida

Le Programme des Nations Unies pour le Développement (PNUD) a organisé, ce mardi 10 novembre 2020 à L’Infosec de Cotonou un atelier d’échanges et de partage d’informations sur les données scientifiques relatives au VIH dans le contexte du droit pénal.

Cette rencontre qui a réuni plusieurs experts, a pour objectif principal de d’échanger et de partager les informations relatives aux enjeux et réformes inhérents à la pénalisation du VIH dans le monde en général et au Bénin en particulier au regard de la déclaration de consensus des experts.

De façon spécifique, il s’est agi d’amener les participants à prendre connaissance et s’approprier la Déclaration de consensus des experts, comprendre les enjeux de la pénalisation du VIH, analyser l’impact de cette déclaration sur les lois sur le VIH dans le monde en l’occurrence en Afrique francophone et au Bénin en particulier.

Au menu des échanges de la rencontre, la loi N° 2005- 31 du 10 Avril 2006 portant prévention, prise en charge et contrôle du VIH Sida en République du Bénin.

À l’occasion, le Coordonnateur adjoint du Programme Santé de Lutte contre le Sida, Docteur Bachabi Moussa se réjouit de démarrage du processus de révision de la loi portant prévention et prise en charge du VIH au Bénin.

Pour lui, cette loi mérite d’être actualisée au vue de l’évolution du VIH/Sida.

Pour sa part, la chargée de programme Genre, Droits humains et VIH/Sida du PNUD, Joséphine Kanakin précise qu’il s’agit d’examiner la loi par des échanges et le partage des informations importantes et scientifiques pour l’adapter à la réalité.

Procédant à l’ouverture de l’atelier, le Secrétaire Exécutif du Conseil National de Lutte contre le SIDA (CNLS), la tuberculose, les hépatites, Melchior Aïssi a insisté sur les échanges fructueux entre les experts.

Il précise que le consensus des experts dans le contexte du droit pénal positif soit calmé au droit positif béninois. » Notre souhait et le souhait du gouvernement est d’humaniser le VIH/Sida parce que dans les lois existantes se trouvent les creusets de la stigmatisation et des discriminations.

« Il faut considérer le SIDA comme toute autre maladie qui peut être traitée partout et à tout moment, ce serait beaucoup plus humanisé. Que les formations sanitaires soient capables de les accueillir partout et dans tous les services. Le fait de donner un endroit spécifique pour leur traitement est déjà une stigmatisation » a t-il laissé entendre.

Le représentant résident adjoint du PNUD, José Herman Wabo, a fait part des attentes de son organisation.
« Nous souhaitons combler un vide noté dans le cadre légal existant afin d’en offrir un cadre légal complet afin d’apporter un appui à ces personnes affectées par le VIH /Sida. Au delà d’un simple atelier, ce sont des échanges qui vont affecter la vie de certaines personnes en leur apportant des solutions ».

Gatien ELEGBEDE