These resources outline how laws criminalising HIV have been applied in different jurisdictions. They demonstrate different ways advocates have attempted to pull together an accurate picture of how laws have been used in the past: a process that can strongly inform current advocacy. Resources include academic articles, reports, interviews, indexes and manuals.
Arguing from a feminist perspective, this article contends that non-disclosure of HIV status to one’s sexual partner should not vitiate consent to sexual activity. Considers the gendered effect of lying, and how HIV status intersects with the power imbalance at the root of sexual assault. Discusses the tension between the need for women to protect both their medical information and their sexual integrity. Also considers the role of stigma in preventing disclosure.
Found uneven application of HIV criminalization laws in the state of Michigan, with black men and white women having a comparatively greater risk of conviction than white men or black women. White women had the highest conviction rate of any group analysed, suggesting they may face a particular burden under these laws. Many of the white women convicted were especially disadvantaged by issues such as poor mental health, substance abuse and homelessness.
Provides global overview of the extent to which criminal and other laws have been used to prosecute people living with HIV for HIV transmission and exposure.
Overview of various jurisdictions shows that an increased understanding of the impact of viral load on infectiousness has resulted in a number of jurisdictions revising or revisiting their criminal laws or prosecutorial policies relating to HIV non-disclosure, exposure and/or transmission.
Explores the evolution of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada, focusing on “criminalization creep”: increasing numbers of people being charged with increasingly severe crimes.
Reports interview with Cynthia Fromstein, a Toronto-based criminal lawyer with experience as a defense lawyer in cases regarding HIV non-disclosure. Discusses her experience with laws around HIV disclosure.
Provides an overview and analysis of criminal cases of HIV exposure and transmission to 2010, and proposes policy options for addressing the problems posed by the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure.
Provides an overview and analysis of criminal cases of HIV exposure and transmission to 2010, and proposes policy options for addressing the problems posed by the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure.
Analyses punitive laws and policies undermining the effective delivery of services to PLHIV and those at risk of HIV infection. Flags laws and policies that violate Constitutional rights. Sets out an advocacy agenda for policy and legislative reform and improvement of law enforcement practices and community understanding of criminalisation issues.
Overview of the Kenya High Court’s ground-breaking decision that some terms in the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act were too broadly defined and that Act contravened Kenya’s constitution.
Presents a public health law mapping of U.S. states that mandate HIV testing and criminalize HIV positive sex workers. Shows HIV transmission and exposure laws interact with sex work laws to compound criminal penalties for people charged with prostitution related crimes. Argues that decriminalization of sex work and HIV transmission and exposure is integral to effectively address the HIV epidemic.
Listing of some U.S. HIV prosecutions by case name (to 2013), (pages 7-9)
Highlights significant findings about Californian criminal law including that more than 800 people have come in contact with California’s criminal system based on their HIV status, with 93% of convictions requiring no proof of conduct likely to transmit HIV. Also finds HIV criminal statutes are disparately enforced based on race/ethnicity, sexuality and gender.
This HIV Criminalisation Defence Case Compendium aims to support lawyers acting for those who are alleged to have put others at risk of HIV. Based on research conducted in late 2017, it includes criminal cases from all over the world where strong defence arguments have resulted in an acquittal or reduced penalty for persons living with HIV who have been accused of HIV exposure, non-disclosure or transmission.
The Compendium is not intended to be comprehensive. It has been developed as a resource for a training of lawyers from Africa – “Lawyers for HIV and TB justice: Strategic litigation, legal defence and advocacy training” – held in Johannesburg, South Africa from 20-23 February 2018.
This paper was commissioned by the UNAIDS Secretariat to serve as a background paper for the Expert Meeting on Criminalisation of HIV Non-Disclosure, Exposure and Transmission, 31 August – 2 September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland.
This paper was commissioned by the UNAIDS Secretariat to serve as a background paper for the Expert Meeting on Criminalisation of HIV Non-Disclosure, Exposure and Transmission, 31 August – 2 September 2011, Geneva, Switzerland. It synthesises general considerations concerning issues raised by the application of the criminal law to non-disclosure, exposure or transmission in relation to HIV Scientific, Medical, Legal and Human Rights Issues.
Argues that laws criminalising HIV exposure fail to satisfy criminal law functions of retribution and deterrence. Retribution is problematic as laws are applied when no intention to transmit HIV, little to no likelihood of transmission and multiple factors may make disclosure difficult. Laws fail to deter unprotected sex and are a poor fit for acts that include no risk of transmission, including sex and blood donation. Instead, laws cause harm, with discriminatory enforcement compounding injustice and stigma. California’s law reform is commendable, while other problematic U.S. HIV-criminalisation statutes should be restructured, amended, or repealed.
Provides an overall understanding of the enforcement of HIV criminalization laws in Florida and assesses any preliminary findings indicating disparities between subpopulations. Preliminary analyses found that there is evidence of disparities in enforcement of HIV criminalization laws related to geography, race/ethnicity, sex at birth, or sex worker (or suspected sex worker) status and underlying related offenses.
This study analyses the California Department of Justice criminal history data on arrests of people who had felony solicitation while HIV-positive from 2005 to 2013 and compared the demographics and frequencies with arrest data on sex work over the same time period. Findings indicate a clear disproportionate representation of Black women among those arrested for sex work, in the context of HIV and in general.
Analyses how HIV criminalisation laws in Georgia have been utilised and assesses preliminary findings on disparities between sub-populations. Found that there might be disparities in enforcement of HIV Criminalisation laws related to geography, race/ethnicity, sex at birth or sex worker (or suspected sex worker) status.
A report on charges of grievous bodily harm via sexual transmission of infection handled by the Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales between 2008-2012, their management and outcomes.
Affidavit provided to the High Court from Dr Ruth M Bland, a medical expert with extensive expertise in conducting research in the field of HIV transmission, concluding that in her expert opinion in the case of E.L. the risk of HIV transmission to the child after a single exposure of breast milk whilst on ART is "infinitesimally small".
This paper, prepared by Moono Nyambe at GNP+, and managed by Julian Hows (GNP+) and Lisa Power (Terrence Higgins Trust) comprised a synthesis of input from several different sources, pubished in April 2005 as a draft document open to comments. The statements and information provided in this document are based on replies to a questionnaire and have not been independently confirmed. The views expressed in this document do not necessarily reflect the official position of UNAIDS which partly funded its production.
Respondents from 41 out of 45 countries provided information for the study. Of the respondents from the 41 countries that were able to provide information, it was reported that in at least 36 countries the actual or potential transmission of HIV can constitute a criminal offence. This supported anecdotal evidence that increasingly the law is seen as a tool for regulating conduct that can lead to HIV transmission. In 21 of these countries, it was reported that at least one person has been prosecuted.
This article provides a re-examination of the criminal issues relating to HIV transmission within the new landscape of advances in medical science and availability of PrEP and PEP, arguing that it necessitates a shift in attitude, policy and doctrine. It specifically argue that HIV transmission does not meet the appropriate harm threshold to constitute GBH and that if criminal law is ultimately about preventing or regulating harm, the ongoing criminalisation of HIV transmission is counter to that aim.
This article articulates how the threat of prosecution of mothers living with HIV who expose or transfer the virus to their foetuses or newborn will discourage and scare women away from seeking proper medical treatment instead of encouraging HIV treatment and prevention. It also explores how HIV-specific criminal transmission laws in the United States could hamper and stifle the progress in prevention and treatment of vertical transmission. It concludes by proposing a model for change in addressing these HIV-specific criminal transmission statutes.
In 2018-2019 the European HIV Legal Forum conducted a project on HIV-criminalization in 10 EU Member States (Austria, Czechia, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and the United Kingdom). The project produced a comparative legal report based on legal survey launched in the 10 countries. One of the main findings of the project showed that regardless of scientific advance in understanding the risk of HIV infection, there is a gap between the scientific knowledge and the understanding of judges, prosecutors and police of the issue due to lack of trainings and national guidelines and media still plays an important but negative role in shaping the discussion around HIV-criminalisation thus sustaining and increasing the stigma against people living with HIV. The report also shows that HIV-criminalisation disproportionately affects key populations, women, people of colour, and the poor and homeless.
This paper reviews recent studies examining the application of HIV-specific criminal laws in North America (particularly the United States and Canada). In the wake of the development of new biomedical prevention strategies, many states in the United States (US) have recently begun to reform or repeal their HIV-specific laws. These findings can help inform efforts to ‘modernize’ HIV laws (or, to revise in ways that reflect recent scientific advances in HIV treatment and prevention).
This article quantifies and characterizes existing legal complaints for the sexual transmission of HIV in Spain, describes temporal trends and whether advance of scientific knowledge is reflected in charging decisions, judicial reasoning, and sentences.
This article reports on the characteristics and prevalence of HIV-specific criminal exposure and transmission laws, and the enforcement of those laws through prosecutions during the period 1986-2001. It also examines the possible mechanisms through which criminal law influences behavior and considers how these might apply to the specific laws described.
A First-hand Account of a Canadian Criminal HIV Exposure Trial
The compendium brings together research from the women's community, examples of documented personal stories and court cases. All the collected materials demonstrate how criminalisation of HIV is a global problem and how it is linked to gender-based violence. Experts believe that criminalising laws do not protect against HIV infection, but only make women worse off in society.
This seminar series1 addressed a series of questions and brought together experts from a range of disciplines to answer them. This document summarises the arguments of each of the papers presented over the course of this seminar series, gives details of outputs connected to it, and also provides information on how and by whom we anticipate findings being used.
This document presents some of the most relevant and recent decisions in which the Court has discussed the limits to individual liberty, autonomy and privacy among issues concerning matters like: (i) HIV criminalization and other protections; (ii) sex work; (iii) abortion or voluntary interruption of pregnancy; (iv) rights of same sex couples to marriage; and, (v) personal drug possession and consumption.
Williams Institute analysis of data from the state of Tennessee about individuals who were convicted of an HIV crime and placed on the state’s sex offender registry (SOR). In addition to the registry data, the report also analyses detailed data from 77 case files of those on Tennessee’s SOR who resided and were prosecuted in Shelby County, home of Memphis.
This issue brief shares lessons and reflections on the role of the judiciary in advancing rights-based HIV responses, to inform the implementation of key commitments in the 2021 Political Declaration on HIV and AIDS and the Global AIDS Strategy. These include an understanding of the critical nature of judicial decisions in shaping the HIV-related legal environment; the important legal implications of evolving HIV science; sensitizing judges to people’s lived experiences is key; and safe spaces for respectful discussion and learning among justice sector peers.
INJURY. Transmission of HIV in cases in which the infected person knew of his partner's disease. The complainant knew that her partner was a carrier of HIV, so having agreed to have sex with him, without any kind of prophylaxis, the transmission of the disease is not worthy of criminal reproach. External evidence of the disease that the complainant had to perceive, since she herself was diagnosed months later, and neither after this diagnosis, nor when she denounced an alleged aggression, did she make any allusion to the contagion of the disease. In dubio pro reo. Self endangerment of the complainant herself.
The SC dismissed the appeal filed against the sentence of the AP Madrid and confirmed the conviction for the crime of aggravated injury due to HIV infection.
This document has been translated from its original language using DeepL Pro (AI translation technology) in order to make more content available to HIV Justice Academy users. We acknowledge the limitations of machine translation and do not guarantee the accuracy of the translated version.
This Note explains the risk of HIV transmission associated with certain behaviours, lays out variations in HIV-specific criminal laws, and examines how those laws are applied. It also examines the courts’ reasoning in Rhoades and Hogg as well as analyzes the legal and policy problems that these laws create, the challenges to amending or repealing the laws.
Using data obtained from the Louisiana Incident-Based Reporting System and from the state’s most populous parishes, this study examines the enforcement of HIV criminalization laws in Louisiana since 2011.
In this study, the authors place the criminalisation of women with HIV for breastfeeding within the context of current medical recommendations and cultural views of breastfeeding. They review the criminal cases against women living with HIV for breastfeeding around the globe, examine the injustice of these prosecutions, and provide recommendations for decriminalisation.
Interactive tool looking at the impact of HIV criminal laws on people living with HIV in nine US states: California, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, Tennessee, Virginia.
This report analyzes the current legal environment in regards to HIV criminalization in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, focusing on reviews of 7 countries: Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Ukraine and Uzbekistan, and performs a more limited review on 2 more countries Tajikistan and Estonia.
Following recent reports of blood donation-related prosecutions in Russia, Singapore, and the United States, the HIV Justice Network undertook desk-based research, collating and categorising all known country and jurisdictional laws that specifically criminalise blood donations by people living with HIV, and known prosecutions under these laws. We analysed these laws and cases using a global policy guidance and human rights law framework, informed by international and state-level scientific data assessing risks of transmission via blood transfusion.
On 8th November 2022 the Constitutional Court of Uganda handed down a decision that has been perceived as contrary to addressing inequalities and helping to end AIDS, as the provisions of the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act, 2015 that were being challenged in the petition, perceived as discriminatory, criminalising HIV/AIDS transmission, among others, were maintained by the Court as being constitutional. ULS LEGAL INSIGHT analyses this petition and its implications on the global approaches to fight against criminalisation of HIV/AIDS transmission.
This report, produced by EWNA, focuses on the criminalisation of HIV transmission, which remains a serious human rights concern in EECA, and includes findings from country informants, including women living with HIV, on laws and policies that criminalise people living with HIV in the EECA region. The report is based on data from 11 countries in the EECA region: Armenia, Belarus, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.
Please note that this report was machine translated via Google translate.
This brief has been prepared for Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) working on HIV and human rights in Angola, to contribute to discussions around criminalisation of HIV in the country. It sets out concerns regarding the criminalisation of HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure in general, based on compelling scientific developments and the position of international human rights and public health experts. It further examines the relevant laws and their application in Angola, provides alternatives to criminalisation and concludes with specific recommendations regarding the reform of such laws in the country.
This brief is also available in Portuguese.
This report produced by GNP+ on behalf of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE provides an update on HIV criminalization in the legal environment and documents HIV criminalization prosecutions in the Asia region.
This report produced by C-Net+ on behalf of HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE maps and documents the existence of laws, practices and policies that impact on responses to HIV.
The 3 first pages of this report are an Executive Summary in English of the findings from a HIV criminalisation mapping exercise in Francophone Africa, conducted between May and September 2017. The full report in French starts from page 4.
Using data obtained from the Arkansas Crime Information Center and the Information Network of Arkansas, this study examines the enforcement of HIV criminalization laws in Arkansas since 1989. It found that HIV-related crimes in Arkansas are disproportionately enforced based on race and sex and impact Black men the most.
"This resource for lawyers and community advocates outlines punitive laws, policies, and cases affecting people living with HIV (PLHIV) and other communicable diseases in all 50 states, the military, federal prisons, and U.S. territories. This Third Edition of the Sourcebook was originally published in 2017 and was updated in January 2024." CHLP
ARASA in collaboration with the HIV Justice Worldwide (HJWW) Consortium, convened a two-day meeting involving policy and law makers, members of the judiciary, lawyers, parliamentarians and representatives from civil society organisations from the East African, SADC regions and global North to revisit alternative approaches towards criminalisation and to accelerate a sustained momentum, strengthen collective action.
The Williams Institute researchers analyzed California Criminal Offender Record Information (CORI) data on HIV offenses in California to explore the demographics and experiences of foreign born individuals as compared to their U.S. born counterparts. While only 30% of immigrants in this data set had immigration proceedings recorded in their criminal history, among them, one in four had those proceedings initiated after and HIV-specific incident. This emphasizes the impact that HIV criminalization can have on the lives of noncitizen immigrants above and beyond the impact on their citizen peers.
Using data obtained from the Maryland State Administrative Office of the Courts, this study from The Williams Institute examines the enforcement of HIV criminalization laws in Maryland.
Highlights:
The Williams Institute analyzed data from the state of Mississippi about individuals arrested for an allegation of an HIV-related offense under Section 92-27-14 of the Mississippi Criminal Code. The study revealed at least 43 people arrested between 2004 and 2021.
Equality Ohio Education Fund (EOEF) and the Ohio Health Modernization Movement (OHMM) collaborated for over three years to for the first time gather data across all 88 counties in Ohio about the use of HIV Criminalisation laws and the consequences of HIV criminalization across Ohio. This effort, which is the first of its kind in Ohio, catalogs the criminal cases charged in Ohio from 2014-2020 under any of Ohio’s six statutes that criminalize or create penalty enhancements for people living with HIV.
The Louisiana legislature created the HIV Criminalization Task Force (Task Force) during the Regular Session of 2023 through the unanimous passage of House Resolution 130, which was enrolled in June 2023. Pursuant to HR 130, the purpose of the Task Force was to study the public health outcomes related to the criminalization of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and provide recommendations to modernize R.S. 14.43.5 to reflect both the realities regarding the routes and risks of transmission of HIV and to better serve the public interest in the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative in Louisiana in a final report of its findings prior to the convening of the 2024 Regular Session of the Legislature of Louisiana. The report makes legislative recommendations for consideration by the Louisiana State legislature .
This article examines the junction of state healthcare and punishment through HIV criminalization. By problematizing the application of criminal law to HIV in Finland, the study locates a genealogy of the “infectious criminal” – a figure at the cusp of these two forms of state power. The article traces how this figure, evoked in official debates from the early 20th century onwards, justified punitive measures to control marginalized people, from poor merchants to prisoners-of-war, sex workers, vagrants, and later, migrants. Drawing on parliamentary archives, the article asks how punishment and existing social injustices are narrated, maintained, and connected. Revealing a continuum of punishment and healthcare, HIV criminalization – especially within a nation deemed exceptionally non-punitive and welfare-oriented – is a crucial point from which to examine the connections of social injustice and criminal justice.
Part I includes summaries of precedential human rights rulings from across the continent, ranging from the right to health to equality, civic rights, criminal justice, and environmental rights.
Part II provides key excerpts from cases showing the care and diligence judges in the region have applied in their reasoning. The excerpts are indicative of constitutional interpretation that respects the universality of human rights in a context where States are trying to step away from the shackles of colonial laws and policing practices.
