Uganda: Article examines why HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill is flawed

An excellent article from Andrew Bahemuka, policy advocacy officer of the Uganda Women’s Network, summarises all of the arguments against HIV-specific criminal HIV transmission legislation, published today in New Vision.

Criminalising HIV/AIDS: Not a win-win situation
Publication date: Wednesday, 15th April, 2009
By Andrew Bahemuka

AFTER nearly 30 years of addressing the HIV/AIDS pandemic, Uganda has reinforced the importance of breaking the silence around the epidemic, talking openly about HIV, and encouraging people to live positively.

Presently the Government seeks to complement the existing policy framework on HIV/AIDS with an overarching legal response.
The Government’s push to come up with the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, 2008 is driven by the wish to respond to serious concerns about the ongoing rapid spread of HIV/AIDS in the country; coupled by what is perceived to be a failure of existing HIV prevention efforts.

However, applying criminal law to HIV exposure or transmission, except in very limited circumstances, does the opposite. It reinforces the stereotype that people living with HIV are immoral and dangerous criminals, rather than, like everyone else, people endowed with responsibility, dignity and human rights.

In some countries, which have passed the law, women have been prosecuted for mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. This is particularly outrageous when globally prevention of mother-to-child transmission coverage is only at 33%.

In resource poor settings, criminalisation is likely to put the blame solely on the woman for transmission that she may be unable to prevent due to dismally poor PMTCT coverage.

Criminalising HIV transmission does nothing to address the real problem which is women’s overall lack of power in society. Women often learn they are HIV positive before their male partners because they are more likely to access health services and thus are blamed for bringing the HIV virus into the relationship, according to a UNAIDS report.

Criminalisation therefore, is unlikely to prevent new infections or reduce women’s vulnerability to HIV. Criminalisation may harm women rather than assist them, and negatively impact both on public health and human rights.

Criminalising HIV exposure or transmission is generally an unjust and ineffective public policy. The obvious exception involves cases where individuals purposely or maliciously transmit HIV with the intent to harm others. Article 13 in particular provides for compulsory testing of targeted groups (drug abusers, sexual offenders and commercial sex workers) contrary to the international guidelines on HIV/AIDS and human rights.

The targeted groups are predominantly vulnerable and marginalised categories who should, in fact, be subjects of protection by the state. In these cases, existing criminal laws can and should be used rather than passing HIV-specific laws.

In addition, the Government should effectively prosecute all cases of sexual violence and ensure that rape in marriage is recognised as a crime. This is unlikely to happen soon with the Government’s delay in passing the Domestic Relations Bill, the Sexual Offences Bill and the Domestic Violence Bill.

Criminalisation of HIV immediately invokes stigma, discrimination and a disincentive for voluntary testing, and access to care and treatment. Save for a few cases, most people who transmit HIV either do so not knowing they are infected and not knowing they are transmitting HIV, or because they fear to reveal their HIV status.

Examples include women in abusive relationships who may fear to disclose their status for fear of the repercussions. Even in these cases, however, the creation of HIV-specific offences is generally not warranted, as existing criminal laws are sufficient to punish individuals who specifically intend to transmit HIV to others.

For example, laws against causing bodily harm can be applied to HIV transmission. Even under criminal law, caution has to be taken where there was no significant risk of HIV transmission or where a person:

-Did not know that he or she was HIV-positive
-Disclosed his or her HIV-positive status to the person at risk (or had reason to believe the other person was aware of his status)

-Did not disclose his or her HIV-positive status because of fear of violence or other consequences.

-Took risk-reducing measures (such as practising safer sex through using a condom or other precautions), or

-Previously agreed on a level of mutually acceptable risk with the other person.
In view of the above, HIV/AIDS specific legislation is not a necessity and should not be encouraged. The Government should focus on empowering people living with HIV to seek HIV testing, disclose their status, and practise safer sex without fear of stigma and discrimination.

The Government could aim at empowering HIV-positive persons by enacting and enforcing anti-discrimination laws and promoting social campaigns to reduce stigma. In order to slow down the spread of the HIV epidemic, vast numbers of people would have to be prevented from having unsafe sex, sharing syringes, or engaging in other risky behaviour, which no HIV-specific criminal law could possibly do.

HIV risk behaviour is prevalent in prisons, and most prison systems continue to reject introduction of evidence-informed prevention measures such as condoms and sterile injecting equipment and fail to undertake measures to reduce the prevalence of rape and other forms of sexual violence.

There is need therefore, for the Government to consult widely with the different stakeholders to make the current bill, human rights responsive. That is when we shall consolidate the gains the country has made in the HIV/AIDS struggle.

US: New York DA calls for HIV-specific laws following new ‘reckless endangerment’ case

A New York State man charged with nine counts of reckless endangerment for having sex with nine males aged between 16 and 20 (the age of consent in NY is 17) without disclosing his HIV status has unleashed a political maelstrom reminiscent of the Nushawn Williams case in the late 1990s.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota is teaming up with Parents for Megan’s Law – a group that advocates cracking down on sex offenders – and calling for HIV-specific laws in New York State because, according to an article in today’s Newsday, the man is “a walking public health menace.”

“Often, it is not until confronted with a case such as this that inadequacies in the law are revealed to prosecutors and the public,” Spota said. “The penal law needs to be reviewed and revised to enhance the penalty and the ability to prosecute an individual who knowingly exposes individuals to HIV,” the virus that causes AIDS.

The current case involves a 36-year-old newspaper deliveryman from Oceanside, who was arrested in December for having sex with a 16 year-old male in his car. When officers found HIV medications in the car, he was arrested and charged with reckless endangerment, criminal sex acts and endangering the welfare of a child.

Yesterday, he was charged on another eight counts of reckless endangerment after investigations uncovered a further eight males, aged 16 to 20, with whom he allegedly had sex without disclosing his HIV status. Unlike Williams, who pleaded guilty and was tried in the media, the man has pleaded not guilty on all nine counts of first-degree reckless endangerment.

A second news story from Newsday does not clarify whether any of the males have tested HIV-positive, and also shows a certain amount of ignorance regarding HIV transmission from Spota.

Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said medical privacy laws prevent him from revealing whether any of the alleged victims had contracted HIV or AIDS. He also noted New York law does not allow him to prosecute the suspect on charges of intentionally spreading the disease, adding he intends to ask state lawmakers to consider a change in the law.

Spota said [the man] faces a maximum of seven years if convicted of the most serious charge.

“On the other hand, each of the victims of this crime have been sentenced in our view to a lifetime of worry and testing,” he said.

Today’s sensitive HIV antibody tests have reduced the ‘window period’ between infection and diagnosis to a few weeks. A few people may produce antibodies outside this period, but all tests are now accurate by 3 months. Therefore, this will not result in a “lifetime of worrying and testing,” as long as the young men are advised of the medical facts.

Complicating matters somewhat is the fact that the man is a registered sex offender due to “a 1992 sodomy conviction involving a 6-year-old relative. He was released from prison in 2001.”

US: Nebraska Senator proposes new HIV exposure laws

Senator Pete Pirsch of Omaha, Nebraska has proposed an amendment to Nebraska’s Revised Statutes that would criminalise “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly engag[ing] in sexual intercourse or sodomy with another individual with the intent to expose that individual to that life-threatening communicable disease.”

The law, of course, makes no sense, and is badly written, like so many HIV-exposure laws. It will basically criminalise any diagnosed HIV-positive person who has unprotected sex without first disclosing their HIV status to their prospective partner, and the individual will be punished (by up to 20 years’ imprisonment) regardless of whether there was a real risk of HIV transmission, or even whether HIV transmission occurred.

This is the second time that Nebraska has attempted to pass an HIV exposure law. In 2004, Senator Lowen Kruse proposed a similar law which did not pass. Let’s hope the same happens this time.

Below, I include the Associated Press story (complete its a stigmatising and incorrect headline) from an Omaha radio station website, and the full text of the proposed law, which can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Update: The reason behind the new push for a law is this case from December.

Allen J. Moore won’t have a chance to spread HIV to anyone – at least not anyone outside of prison – for the next 10 years…Moore was sentenced for manufacturing child pornography after Omaha police investigators discovered a tape of him having sex with a 17-year-old boy and a young man. The 17-year-old told police that he consented to sex with Moore. The teenager said, however, that Moore never told him he had HIV. Now, the teen is saddled with the virus that can cause AIDS. And now, state senators are prepared to reconsider a bill that would make it a crime to knowingly transmit HIV without informing an intimate partner. Without such a charge, prosecutors had to scramble to find anything to hold Moore accountable. State Sen. Brad Ashford, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called Moore a “poster child” of why Nebraska needs such a law.

Spreading AIDS could be felony in Neb.
Associated Press – January 21, 2009

LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) – Having sex with the intention of spreading a deadly disease like AIDS would be a felony in Nebraska under a proposal in the state Legislature.

State Sen. Pete Pirsch of Omaha introduced the bill (LB625) Wednesday that would also make it illegal to sell or donate organs, blood, semen and other bodily fluids with the intention of spreading a deadly disease. Sharing hypodermic needles with the same purpose would also be illegal.

Pirsch wants a harsh penalty for violating the proposed law. Violators would be guilty of a Class 1B felony, which carries a minimum prison sentence of 20 years, and a maximum sentence of life in prison.

LEGISLATURE OF NEBRASKA
ONE HUNDRED FIRST LEGISLATURE
FIRST SESSION
LEGISLATIVE BILL 625
Introduced by Pirsch, 4.
Read first time January 21, 2009
Committee: Judiciary
A BILL
1 FOR AN ACT relating to crimes and offenses; to amend section
2 28-101, Reissue Revised Statutes of Nebraska; to prohibit
3 the intentional exposure to another of a life-threatening
4 communicable disease; to harmonize provisions; and to
5 repeal the original section.
6 Be it enacted by the people of the State of Nebraska,

1 Section 1. Section 28-101, Reissue Revised Statutes of
2 Nebraska, is amended to read:
3 28-101 Sections 28-101 to 28-1350 and section 2 of this
4 act shall be known and may be cited as the Nebraska Criminal Code.
5 Sec. 2. (1) It is unlawful for an individual who knows
6 oneself to be infected with a life-threatening communicable disease
7 to intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:
8 (a) Engage in sexual intercourse or sodomy with another
9 individual with the intent to expose that individual to that
10 life-threatening communicable disease;
11 (b) Sell or donate one’s own organs, tissue, or blood,
12 blood products, semen, or other bodily fluids with the intent to
13 expose the recipient to a life-threatening communicable disease;
14 and
15 (2) Share with another individual a hypodermic needle,
16 syringe, or both for the introduction of drugs or any other
17 substance into, or for the withdrawal of blood or body fluids
18 from, the other individual’s body with the intent to expose another
19 person to a life-threatening communicable disease.
20 (3) For purposes of this section:
21 (a) Sexual intercourse does not include penetration by
22 any object other than the male sex organ; and
23 (b) Sodomy does not include the penetration of the anal
24 opening by any object other than the male sex organ.
25 (4) Violation of this section is a Class IB felony.

Kenya: Unease over new HIV transmission law

IRIN/PlusNews has published an interesting article analysing the potential impact of Kenya’s new criminal HIV transmission law, which was passed in 2006 but has yet to be impemented.

KENYA: Unease over new HIV transmission law

NAIROBI, 12 December 2008 (PlusNews) – In June 2006, a young woman in western Kenya died of HIV-related complications and left a list of about 100 people that she said she had infected with HIV. A new law, approved by the Kenyan president but yet to be implemented, is hoping to prevent wilful transmission.

The HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act 2006 has drawn mixed and very sharp reactions. Inviolata Mbwavi, an AIDS activist who went public about her status in 1994, warned that the legislation in its current form appeared to label HIV-infected people as dangerous human beings with whom people should not associate.

“When you criminalise HIV then we are going back to square [one] of trying to stigmatise the virus even more, yet we have not effectively dealt with the stigma associated with HIV. Why do we want to further burden those who are already burdened by coming up with HIV-specific legislation?”

The Kenyan government is divided on the matter. The National AIDS Control Council, a government body set up to coordinate HIV control activities, is strongly opposed to the section that puts the responsibility for not transmitting the virus on those already living with it.

“Why would one bother to go for a test when they already know it could be used against them in a court of law?” said Tom K’Opere, an advocate of the High Court, at a conference organised by the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights to discuss the merits and demerits of the legislation.

“It is ridiculous, because we all know that knowing one’s status is one of the most effective ways of containing the scourge, yet we are now trying to discourage this by introducing such a law.”

According to the National AIDS Control Council, most Kenyans do not know their status.

Supporters of the law, like Otiende Amollo, a lawyer and member of the task force that collected views from the public before the legislation was drafted, maintain it would go along way in protecting vulnerable groups like women and children, who are particularly vulnerable to sexual assault.

Anne Gathumbi, an officer of the Open Society Initiative for East Africa, which supports and promotes public participation in democratic governance and the rule of law, said: “We know that the majority of those who know their status are women. What we are doing by passing such a law is therefore to condemn people we are claiming to protect to jail.”

The new legislation has also brought into question the responsibility of HIV-negative people. “What we are proposing in the law only touches those already [HIV]-positive. We should also look at the responsibility of those who do not have the virus,” said Anne Marie, a civil society activist.

“Are we not forgetting that we should vouch for shared responsibility? Let us not create a law because we are desperate to show the world that we are doing something.”

Another clause causing concern is the one that gives medical practitioners the authority to disclose the status of patients to their next of kin, violating their right to confidentiality. It remains to be seen whether Kenya will go ahead and implement these contentious clauses.

Kennedy Anyona*, who has lived with the virus for the past four years, says the responsibility of revealing one’s status to anybody is a right that should not be delegated to any other party.

“I have a right to confidentiality and that cannot be trampled upon. The responsibility of revealing my status, which is the best thing to do however, rests with me,” he said.

“Taking that away means I am being denied my human right to privacy and confidentiality, which are even enshrined in international laws to which Kenya is a signatory.”

Uganda: Bill to force spouses to reveal HIV status

Uganda’s proposed HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Bill is analysed in this report from the Daily Monitor.

President Museveni has previously said that he supports the death penalty for criminal HIV transmission.

 

Bill to force spouses to reveal HIV status

by Sheila Naturinda

Monitor Online

Dec 12, 2008 – 2:54:15 AM

Kampala

Ugandans who test positive for HIV, the virus that causes Aids, will have their results shared with their spouses and sexual partners with or without their consent, under a new law proposed by the government.

The draft HIV and Aids Prevention and Control Bill 2008 unveiled before a committee of Parliament this week, seeks to criminalise the willful and intentional transmission of HIV to an uninfected person. It also seeks to guarantee access to treatment for those already infected and to protect people living with HIV against discrimination.

The Bill still, undergoing consultations, seeks to get a formal legislation to back up and supplement the fight against the epidemic in the country. HIV/Aids activists have, however, attacked provisions of the draft that seek to peel away the veil of confidentiality that voluntary testing for HIV currently provides.

For instance, the Bill recommends that medical personnel who carry out an HIV test “may notify the sexual partner(s) of the person tested where he or she reasonably believes that the HIV positive person poses a risk of HIV transmission to the partner and the person has been given reasonable opportunity to inform their partner(s) of their HIV positive status and has failed to do so”.

Ms Stella Kentutsi of the National Forum of People Living with HIV/Aids Networks in Uganda told Daily Monitor that the provisions compelling disclosure are insensitive to the people living with HIV. “This criminalisation will automatically affect disclosure which has been encouraged and it will therefore increase the level of silent transmission among the population,” she said.

Mr Robert Ochai, the executive director of The Aids Support Organisation, said the Bill has many contentious clauses including that of disclosure which ought to be deleted or amended.

Dr Chris Baryomunsi, the vice chairperson of the parliamentary committee on HIV/Aids, defended the draft Bill and its provisions and said similar laws criminalising willful transmission of HIV had been passed in South Africa, Kenya, the Philippines and China. He added, however, that the Bill could be amended to address concerns raised by various groups.

The Bill urges individuals, who are aware of their HIV-positive status to inform their sexual partners and observe instructions on prevention and treatment. Although the Bill provides for voluntary counselling and testing for HIV, it prescribes compulsory HIV tests for people convicted of drug abuse or possession of medical instruments associated with drug abuse, people charged with sexual offences such as rape and defilement, as well as sex workers convicted on prostitution charges.

The Bill also prescribes “routine” HIV testing for victims of sexual offences and pregnant women as well as their partners. It also provides for individuals to be subjected to HIV tests under a court order, with or without their consent.

First effort

The Bill is the first formal effort by the government to criminalise behaviour that could lead to HIV and Aids. It comes at a time of growing anxiety among public health specialists over the stagnation of the country’s HIV prevalence rate at around 6.5 per cent and evidence of rising year-on-year infections.

The move towards forceful disclosure appears informed by research findings which show more infections occurring among married couples, as well as a high incidence of discordance where one partner is not infected.

Supporters of the Bill argue that compelled disclosure will help uninfected partners take steps to prevent infection.

Despite the controversial clauses on disclosure, the Bill contains several provisions designed to protect the rights of people living with HIV and Aids.

Apart from providing for pre and post-test counselling, the Bill says every pregnant woman who tests positive for HIV is entitled to safe and appropriate anti-retroviral treatment, which helps postpone the onset of Aids, and medication to prevent the transmission of the virus to her baby. It also provides for HIV testing for babies born to HIV-positive mothers and guarantees treatment, care and support for those found to be infected.

In other provisions, the Bill forbids employers from subjecting employees to compulsory HIV tests. It also notes that “no person shall be compelled to undergo an HIV test or disclose his status for the purposes of gaining access to any credit or loan services, medical, accident or life insurance or extension of continuation of such services”.

The Bill states, “A person shall not be denied access to any employment which he/she is qualified or transferred and denied promotion on such grounds like he has the virus or he is perceived to carry the virus.” It prescribes a five-year jail term to employers who violate this provision.

The Bill also seeks to eliminate discrimination among school children that have been affected in their schools because some have been denied education on grounds that they are HIV positive. “An education institution shall not deny admission or expel, discipline segregate and deny participation in any event that a person is perceived to be of HIV positive status,” it states. The Bill also seeks to have all persons whether infected or not have a right to vie for public offices.

In work places, the Bill seeks to force all employers to make sure all mechanisms are in place to reduce contraction of the disease by their employees.

In places like hospitals, according to Dr Baryomunsi, all employers will be mandated to ensure that necessities like adequate gloves and immediate medications are available in cases where someone accidentally pricks himself. “This helps in cases where such a person is likely to unknowingly transmit the virus to a patient,” he said.

The Bill states: “Every institution comprising of 20 or more persons will provide HIV/Aids related treatment and the compensation to persons working in such an institution who will be occupationally exposed to the virus,” the Bill reads in part.

Highlights of the Bill

  • Willful and intentional transmission of HIV is criminal.
  • A doctor can notify a partner of an HIV-positive preson their status if the doctor believes the infected person poses a risk of transmission
  • Individuals aware of their HIV-positive status should inform sexual partners and observe instructions on preven tion and treatment.
  • Compulsory HIV tests for people convicted of drug abuse or possession of medical instruments associated with drug abuse, people charged with sexual offences such as rape, defilement, as well as sex workers convicted of prostitution.
  • Routine HIV testing for victims of sexual offences and pregnant women as well as their partners.
  • Every preganant woman who tests HIV-positive is entitled to safe and appropriate anti-retroviral treatment.
  • HIV testing for babies born to HIV-positive mothers and treatment, care for those found infected.
  • Loan/credit/insurance providers should not subject clients to HIV test as a precondition for offering the credit or service.

Africa: PlusNews publishes in-depth analysis of criminalisation throughout the continent

PlusNews, the global online HIV and AIDS news service of the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN), has published an excellent in-depth analysis of criminalisation in Africa.

A collection of short articles focusing on various aspects of criminalisation in different parts of the continent can be downloaded as a pdf here, or read online here.

They include:

I reproduce here an article providing an overview of the situation alongside a criminalisation map of Africa which they say will be updated once they receive more accurate information from readers in Africa.

 

AFRICA: Will criminalising HIV transmission work?

IRIN/PlusNews

Monday 08 December 2008

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are looking at a new way of preventing HIV infections: criminal charges. But experts argue that applying criminal law to HIV transmission will achieve neither criminal justice nor curb the spread of the virus; rather, it will increase discrimination against people living with HIV, and undermine public health and human rights.

UNAIDS has urged governments to limit criminalisation to cases “where a person knows his or her HIV-positive status, acts with the intention to transmit HIV, and does in fact transmit HIV”. The reality is that intentional and malevolent acts of HIV transmission are rare, so in most instances criminal prosecutions are not appropriately applied.

In Switzerland, a man was sent to jail earlier in 2008 for infecting his girlfriend with HIV, even though he was unaware of his HIV status, and a Texas court recently sentenced a man living with HIV to 35 years in prison for spitting on a police officer, although the chances of the officer being exposed to the virus were negligible.

Laws making HIV transmission an offence are not new to the developed world, but the trend has been growing in African countries, where higher prevalence levels make such laws all the more attractive to policymakers.

“Africa has burst into this whole frenetic spasm of criminalising HIV,” said South African Justice Edwin Cameron, who is also HIV positive, at the International AIDS Conference in Mexico earlier this year.

In Uganda, proposed HIV legislation is not limited to intentional transmission, but also forces HIV-positive people to reveal their status to their sexual partners, and allows medical personnel to reveal someone’s status to their partner.

Most legislative development has taken place in West Africa, where 12 countries recently passed HIV laws. In 2004 participants from 18 countries met at a regional workshop in N’djamena, Chad, to adopt a model law on HIV/AIDS for West and Central Africa.

The law they came up with was far from “model”, according to Richard Pearshouse, director of research and policy at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, who maintains that the model law’s broad definition of “wilful transmission” could be used to prosecute HIV-positive women for transmitting the virus to their babies during pregnancy.

People living with HIV have expressed concerns that the growing trend to criminalise HIV infection places legal responsibility for HIV prevention solely on those already living with the virus, and dilutes the message of shared responsibility.

UNAIDS has warned that using criminal law in cases other than intentional transmission could create distrust in relationships with healthcare workers, as people may fear the information will be used against them in a criminal case. Such laws could also “discourage HIV testing, since ignorance of one’s status might be perceived as the best defence in a criminal law suit.”

Some policymakers have called for HIV legislation as a means to protect women from HIV infection, but the irony is that sometimes these laws may result in women being disproportionately prosecuted. Many women find it difficult to negotiate safer sex or to disclose their status to their partner.

What are the alternatives? UNAIDS recommends that instead of applying criminal law to HIV transmission, governments should expand programmes proven to have reduced HIV infection. At the moment, there is no information indicating that using criminal law will work.

Uganda: Man jailed for infecting mentally ill woman with HIV; fuels proposed ‘wilful’ transmission law debate

A 47 year-old HIV-positive man has been jailed for 14 years in Uganda for having sex with a mentally ill young woman and allegedly infecting her with HIV.

Although there is currently no criminal HIV transmission in Uganda, the trial took place during fierce public debate over the HIV Prevention and Control Bill which seeks criminalise “wilful” HIV transmission. However, sex with a mentally ill person is a criminal offense regardless of HIV status that carries a penalty of a 14 year prison sentence.

I’ve included two articles here. The first, from New Vision Online, reports the trial and setencing and refers to the legal debate. The second, from IRIN/Plus News, a few weeks earlier, examines the proposed law and civil society’s reactions to it.

Man jailed for infecting girl with HIV
New Vision Online
Wednesday, 3rd December, 2008
By Dradenya Amazia

A 47-year-old man is to serve 14 years in jail for having sex with a mentally ill 19-year-old-girl and infecting her with HIV/AIDS.

Sarafino Aginya is a resident of Metu in Moyo district.

Having sex with a mentally ill person is an offence.

Aginya, who was arrested red-handed last August, yesterday pleaded guilty, and blamed Satan.

Any person who has sex with a woman, knowing that she is an idiot or imbecile, is liable to imprisonment for 14 years, according to the Penal Code.

Passing judgment, Magistrate Geofrey Salaume, said Aginya intentionally infected the girl, which had traumatised the family and her care-takers.

The night he committed the horrific act, Salaume said, Aginya pretended to be drunk and the girl’s parents offered him accommodation.

In the middle of the night, Aginya forced the girl into “live sex and infected her with HIV/AIDS” well aware of his status, the magistrate stated.

“You have traumatised and abused the hospitality the family of this girl provided you by adding more stress and misery to her parents by forcing her to have unprotected sex while knowing that you have HIV/AIDS,” Salaume said while reading his ruling. Salaume said there was need to keep people like Aginya “away for sometime so as to make others learn.”

“I want to keep you away from others by giving the maximum punishment which I feel is proportionate to your act, which will be 14 years of imprisonment.”

He said Aginya’s act was a taboo in African culture.

“We can’t tolerate this kind of act. It is taboo in African culture to have pre-marital sex with a girl at her parents’ home and in their bed,” he fumed.

Salaume cautioned the people of Moyo to be careful with distant relatives and friends when extending hospitality to them. Aginya has 14 days to appeal to the High Court if he so wishes.

The prosecutor produced a medical report proving that the accused was HIV-positive and had infected the girl.

The court heard that Aginya was accommodated in the same room with the girl. The mother heard her screaming and rushed to the bedroom where she found Aginya forcefully having sex with the girl. Aginya was arrested and handed over to the Police.

The intentional spread of HIV/AIDS is not covered by the Penal Code. But the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control Bill, now in Parliament, seeks to make this a criminal offence. It is intended to provide a legal framework for the national response to HIV and protect the rights of individuals affected by HIV.

The Bill has, however, been vehemently opposed by the people living with the disease. The Bill has been also criticised by activists, saying it requires HIV-positive people to reveal their status to their sexual partners and pregnant women to be tested.

Laws that make the intentional HIV transmission an offence have been in effect in the developed world. The trend is growing in Africa, where higher prevalence levels make such laws attractive to policymakers.

In Switzerland, a man was sent to jail earlier this year for infecting his girlfriend with HIV, even though he was unaware of his HIV status. A Texas court recently sentenced a man living with HIV to 35 years in prison for spitting on a Police officer.

UNAIDS has warned that using criminal laws in cases other than intentional transmission could create distrust between healthcare workers and patients.

UGANDA: Draft HIV bill’s good intentions could backfire
PlusNews
24 November 2008

AIDS activists in Uganda have slammed a proposed new law that will force HIV-positive people to reveal their status to their sexual partners, and also allow medical personnel to reveal someone’s status to their partner.

The HIV Prevention and Control Bill (2008) is intended to provide a legal framework for the national response to HIV, as well as protect the rights of individuals affected by HIV.

Activists agree that Uganda needs legislation to guide its HIV policy. “We want the law; as a matter of fact we are overdue in having a legal framework,” said Beatrice Were, a leading HIV-positive campaigner.

However, they are concerned that the bill in its current form could worsen the difficulties many HIV-positive people experience.

Pregnant women will have to undergo compulsory testing, which proponents said would increase the number of women accessing prevention of mother-to-child HIV transmission (PMTCT) services; in 2007, only 600,000 pregnant women of 1.4 million were tested for HIV, 91,000 of whom were found to be infected.

Dr David Apuuli Kihumuro, head of the Uganda AIDS Commission, told IRIN/PlusNews that certain sections of the bill needed to be revised, for instance, the provision that HIV status disclosure would be mandatory for couples planning to marry.

“We have to think about the repercussions of this in a male-dominated society,” he said, noting that many women were afraid of their husbands’ reactions once they revealed their HIV status; at least three women have been killed by their husbands this year because they were positive.

Stella Kentutsi, programme manager at the National Forum of PHLA Networks in Uganda (NAFOPHANU), said medical practitioners usually had no way of knowing how a spouse or other sexual partners might react, and should therefore not be permitted to reveal an infected person’s HIV status. “Even if the partner has a right to know … forceful revelation is not okay,” she said.

‘Wilful’ transmission
The bill also criminalises – with a punishment of the death penalty – the intentional or wilful transmission of the virus. President Yoweri Museveni has said he “fully supports” an HIV/AIDS law that would criminalise deliberate transmission of the virus. There has been a recent public outcry over media reports of HIV-positive individuals infecting minors, which has gained support for the bill.

“If you push for … punishment because someone is infected, you are discriminating and undermining the rights of people living with HIV,” Were said.

Kentutsi asked: “How do you know who infects intentionally and wilfully and who does not?” What makes it intentional or wilful?”

Activists said applying criminal law to HIV-risk behaviour was likely to undermine prevention efforts and, rather than encouraging people to know their status, would actually deter them from seeking HIV testing.

The bill could also allow the government to avoid its responsibility to prevent HIV, and foist the blame for being positive on infected people.

“We should avoid creating scenarios where people living with HIV/AIDS are looked at either criminals or potential criminals,” a recent statement by NAFOPHANU said.

“Rather than introducing laws criminalising HIV exposure and transmission, legislators must reform laws that stand in the way of HIV prevention and treatment.”

Spain: Ministry of Health plans national database of HIV-positive people

Update: 9th October 2008.

The Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal by several Spanish HIV organisations against the Ministry of Health, which will go ahead with establishing a national HIV database.

Spain to establish a HIV register
Oct 9, 2008
typicallyspanish.com

Spain is to set up a registry of people affected with the HIV virus. It comes as the Constitutional Court has rejected an appeal against the Ministry for Health plan presented by several different Non-Governmental associations.

The register will contain files which will hold the latest diagnostic data on those infected. The authorities say the registry will help them to keep control of the real situation of the spread of the virus in Spain, but objectors claim that the project does not guarantee the anonymity of the people included.

It’s understood the files will be labelled with a combination of initials and birthplace to identify each case. Across the European Union, only Italy has a similar registry in existence.

Spanish Health Ministry Announces Plan To Determine Number of HIV Cases by 2015
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Kaiser Network

The Spanish Ministry of Health recently announced a new plan to determine the number of people living with HIV in the country and reduce the spread of the virus by 2015, El Pais reports. The plan replaces an earlier one that expired in 2005 and was not renewed, reflecting what some nongovernmental organizations say is the government’s lack of dedication to addressing HIV/AIDS.

Some HIV/AIDS advocacy groups say the new plan does little to address the disease in the country. Cesida, the largest confederation of NGOs involved in fighting HIV/AIDS in Spain, said the new plan “cannot be considered a plan of action.” Some NGOs are complaining that the plan’s goals are vaguely worded and that the time frame is too long. NGOs also have said that the plan places too much emphasis on those who are already HIV-positive, rather than on the general public, to combat the spread of the virus. In addition, some NGOs have said that the plan singles out high-risk groups, such as injection drug users and commercial sex workers, and does not mention specifically heterosexual men, who are the primary transmitters of the virus in the country, El Pais reports.

The plan also will establish a national database of HIV-positive people. Although NGOs support the health ministry’s efforts to determine the number of people in Spain living with HIV, they are opposed to the national database and are concerned it could become public knowledge and lead to discrimination against people living with the virus, El Pais reports (Benito, El Pais, 9/12).

Zimbabwe: Blame, responsibility, impact of criminalisation on women analysed

Excellent opinion piece in the Zimbabwean newspaper, The Herald, which discusses blame and responsibility and the impact of criminalisation of HIV transmission on women.

 

Blame Game Won’t Change a Thing

The Herald (Harare)

Beatrice Tonhodzayi

4 October 2008She is young and very striking. That type of girl that would give most of my male colleagues’ ideas; if she ever looked their way. She is very pretty, what my male colleagues term the “typical African queen.”

However when you look deeply into her eyes, you can tell she is sad.

But what would make such a pretty and young lady sad?

Mutsa (not her real name) is living with HIV. It is not that knowledge however that is responsible for the sadness that surrounds her very being.

It is anger and a sense of betrayal.

Anger and betrayal, that she feels towards her former lover, a medical doctor, who she says infected her with HIV.

When Mutsa got in touch with me about her story, I felt very betrayed on her behalf.

There she was, going out with a medical doctor, someone who has all the knowledge about HIV transmission. This was the first man she had ever been with and he had the nerve to infect her with HIV, I felt.

But then, I began to wonder!

Did he even know that he was HIV positive?

Yes, he may have slept with other women before or besides Mutsa but this does not mean he knew his status and therefore willingly infected his girlfriend.

And why did Mutsa have unprotected sex with him when she did not know his status?

I am a woman; I champion the women’s cause as much as I can because I sincerely believe that life has not been very kind to woman-kind.

However, I am a journalist and must look at both sides of the coin. I must be objective.

There are many women who are living angry lives unnecessarily. They are filled with so much bitterness at the fact that their husbands and partners have infected them with HIV.

This anger in some cases, is so intense that it eats up one’s very passion for life.

They wish these men could just be thrown into jail for committing such heinous crimes.

Is this necessarily fair to the men in question and the women themselves?

A cursory glance shows that most women who are living with HIV blame a man for their status and this is understandable.

It is a fact that most men sleep with several women at the same time. How many women can safely say they have never been played?

Definitely not me!

But if we know we are or have been played, should we not begin to look out for ourselves?

Another interesting truth is that even women, who have had other sexual encounters before marriage, are quick to point a finger to the man when they test positive.

This is despite the fact that some of them would not have tested before entering this relationship.

Ever think for a moment that you could actually have been positive before, sisters?

If the truth be told, there are some men who have also been infected by women. But how many times do you hear people sympathising with a man?

Is this because men do admit to having been around and done that, unlike their female counterparts?

Multiple concurrent partnerships, especially the “small house” syndrome, are very popular in southern Africa and this is a documented fact.

Such partnerships have been identified as a key driver of HIV in the region.

Because men keep the majority of small houses, whenever transmission occurs, a finger is pointed at them and quite rightly so, mostly.

But what does just blaming them achieve if women do not stand up and begin to look out for themselves.

For argument’s sake, let us say the man is responsible, does this mean by pointing a finger, the virus would disappear?

If we could even go on to punish someone for infecting someone, would we solve anything?

Some would argue that it is high time we criminalised HIV transmission but will this prevent the spread of HIV?

Would it make people more sexually responsible?

Justice Edwin Cameron of South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal at the just ended XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico said criminalisation of HIV transmission makes for bad policy direction around the epidemic.

He said laws and prosecutions don’t prevent the spread of HIV but may actually continue to distract us from reaching our goals of ending deaths, stigma, discrimination and suffering.

He also said something else that I like.

“The prevention of HIV is not just a technical challenge for public health. It is a challenge to all humanity to create a world in which behaving is truly feasible, is safe for both sexual partners, and genuinely rewarding.

“When condoms are available, when women have the power to use them, when those with HIV or at risk of it can get testing and treatment, when they are not afraid of stigma, ostracism and discrimination, they are far more likely to be able to act consistently for their own safety and that of others.”

The responsibility lies with all of us surely?

At the International AIDS Conference Regional Feedback Meeting held at the Harare International Conference Centre, Southern Africa HIV and AIDS Information Dissemination Service (SAfAIDS) Executive Director, Mrs Lois Chingandu also echoed the same comments.

She said the challenge with sexual matters were that they were mostly a “heat of the moment” thing and therefore clearly ascertaining that someone has an intention of infecting someone would be difficult.

“One could look for a condom in the dark and fail to find it. Both parties would go ahead to have consensual sex. Could we blame someone here?” she asked.

Today my message is simple. I am just appealing to Mutsa and others like her who are failing to move on because of the anger and sense of betrayal they feel that someone infected them to let go of it and live their lives.

She once felt like taking him to court but then, she says, she realised there was really no point for her status would not change.

I am also inviting my readers out there to contribute their thoughts and comments to this issue of blame and criminalising HIV transmission. My e-mail address is beatrice@safaids.org.zw

Please note:

Each of us has the responsibility and right to protect ourselves from HIV infection and re-infection

Failing to manage one’s anger is one way of increasing stress levels

You can still enjoy a full and productive life, even if you are HIV positive

Beatrice Tonhodzayi is a Programme Officer-Media with SAfAIDS

Africa’s criminal HIV transmission laws are highly inefficient, says Justice Michael Kirby

Australia’s most eloquent and insightful High Court judge, Justice Michael Kirby, spoke at the International Criminal Law Reform conference in Dublin yesterday, arguing that the move to criminalise HIV transmission in sub-Saharan countries such as Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Togo and Sierra Leone will do more harm than good.

He also also argued that countries which focused on human rights-based laws that encouraged the undiagnosed to test for HIV did better at containing the epidemic than those which “adopted punitive, moralistic, denialist strategies, including those relying on the criminal law as a sanction.”

 

Third World should help HIV sufferers, not punish them: judge

Victor Violante, Legal Affairs Reporter

The Canberra Times

16/07/2008

Developing countries should introduce laws that encourage potentially HIV-positive people to seek diagnosis and treatment, High Court judge Justice Michael Kirby said last night.

Speaking at the International Criminal Law Reform conference in Dublin, Justice Kirby said governments that had focused on educating rather than punishing those with HIV or AIDS were most successful in containing their spread.

”Those countries that have adopted a human rights-respecting approach to the HIV/AIDS epidemic have been far more successful in containing the spread of HIV than those countries that have adopted punitive, moralistic, denialist strategies, including those relying on the criminal law as a sanction,” he said.

Justice Kirby has been heavily involved in the international fight against AIDS, having served as a member of the World Health Organisation’s Inaugural Global Commission on AIDS from 1988 to 1992. Since 2004 he has been a member of the UNAIDS global reference panel on HIV/AIDS and human rights.

While many developed countries, including Australia, had laws that criminalised the deliberate spread of HIV, such laws should not be used as part of the strategy to curb infection rates.

”Legal and punitive laws have been kept in reserve because their aggressive deployment has generally been seen as counterproductive.

”This is so because of the typical ineffectiveness of criminal law as a response to activities important to individual identity and pleasure [such as sex and drug use].”

Justice Kirby, who is openly homosexual, spoke about his indirect experience with HIV, having seen friends die from the virus.

”From 1985, I lost a number of close friends, several of them members of the legal profession. I witnessed the substantial helplessness of the medical profession in the early days of HIV.”

He urged the thousands of lawyers, judicial officers and lawmakers from all over the world at the conference to avoid enacting what he called ”HILs”, or highly inefficient laws.

Of concern were laws introduced in some African nations, including Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Togo and Sierra Leone, that impinge on the human rights of those infected with HIV or AIDS.

One law criminalised the ”wilful transmission” of HIV, but defined the offence as the transmission of HIV ”through any means by a person with full knowledge of his or her HIV status to another person”.

Justice Kirby said, ”Potentially, [that law] imposes criminal liability, although a person may practise safer sex which reduces or eliminates actual risk of transmission to a sexual partner; takes steps to disinfect injecting or skin-piercing equipment; or involving mother-to-child transmission of HIV regardless of the actual risks involved in the particular case.”

He urged governments to introduce laws and programs that were proven strategies in the war against HIV and AIDS, even if they were unpopular with their cultures.

”Taking the effective measures is not always popular. Yet taking punitive measures, depending on their terms and enforcement, is, on current information, unlikely to succeed in the environment where there is no effective vaccine and no curative therapy which can be offered to persons living with HIV and AIDS.”