Brussels, 1st December 2011 – In Western and in Central Europe, the total number of people living with HIV continues to grow and there is a strong evidence of resurgent HIV epidemics among men who have sex with men in Western Europe.[1]
At IPPF, we are committed to the universal provision of ‘positive prevention’: a set of actions that help people living with HIV to protect their sexual health, avoid other sexually transmitted infections, delay HIV and AIDS disease progression, and avoid passing HIV infection on to others.
Vicky Claeys, IPPF EN Regional Director stresses: “We need balanced policies and legislation to protect the rights of both infected and uninfected persons. It is a very pitiful development that increasingly governments take refuge in the criminalization of HIV in the hope of reducing HIV transmission. There are no such restrictive laws on the transmission of tuberculosis although we all very well know that tuberculosis is communicable and deadly if not treated well. So what is the difference? Why do politicians think that HIV transmission is a crime while transmission of tuberculosis is pure bad luck? Could it be because HIV is sexually transmittable?”
In Sweden, for example, HIV-positive persons can be prosecuted and convicted under Swedish criminal law for transmission of HIV, exposure without transmission and /or failure to disclose HIV status. The Swedish 2004 Communicable Diseases Act requires an HIV-positive person to inform a prospective sexual partner of his/her status. A failure to follow this and other instructions by doctors could ultimately result in forced isolation.
“In my experience, the accused persons are seldom ‘raw criminals”, says Jan Albert, Professor of Infectious Diseases and chief physician at Karolinska Institute, Stockholm: “There are many reasons for neglecting to inform sexual partners about HIV status, including denial. None, or very few, have had the intent to transmit HIV, which is how these acts often are described by the media.”[2]
Since 2010, IPPF Member Association of Sweden, RFSU, together with RFSL (The LGBT Swedish association) and HIV-Sweden have been working to educate and inform politicians, judges, lawyers and other key decision-makers on the negative impact of the current legislation on the HIV response. The goal of this 2-year project is to change Swedish criminal law and Communicable Diseases Act as well as the application of legislation and regulations surrounding People Living with HIV in Sweden.[3]
“The fact that we have laws and administration of justice that, in our opinion, are counterproductive when working on the prevention of HIV, is particularly alarming because of the critical juncture we are at”, says Åsa Regnér, Executive Director of RFSU: “More people than ever are living with HIV in Sweden and young people’s awareness of HIV is low. We hope that this day will give the issue of criminalization of HIV a lot more attention.”[4]
IPPF EN supports RFSU in their campaign against criminalization of HIV transmission or exposure. According to Vicky Claeys: “Criminalization is not the answer to protect the general population. On the contrary, I think it can only bear negative effects such as being afraid to get tested, serious misuse of the possibility for prosecution and stigma and discrimination for those living with HIV. I am not sure who the winner is here.”
ENDS
1 UNAIDS report 2010
2 Behind Bars: an international collection of interviews from several countries exposes the effect criminal laws on HIV transmission are having on people’s working and private lives: www.ippf.org/en/What-we-do/AIDS+and+HIV/Behind+bars.htm[1]
3 IPPF EN Annual Report 2010 Highlights http://www.ippfen.org/NR/rdonlyres/0627AA35-AACC-4087-85D2-4C0AC1A19B80/0/IPPF_AnnualReport2010LowRes.pdf
4 In conjunction with World’s Aids Day, RFSU together with RFSL and (The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) and HIV-Sweden (The Swedish Association for HIV-Positive people) hosted a Conference on HIV and criminalization. Among the speakers are academics in the field of Criminal Law, representatives from the prosecution authorities as well as medical doctors specialized in infectious diseases and politicians.
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[1] UNAIDS report 2010
[2] Behind Bars: an international collection of interviews from several countries exposes the effect criminal laws on HIV transmission are having on people’s working and private lives: www.ippf.org/en/What-we-do/AIDS+and+HIV/Behind+bars.htm[2]
[3] IPPF EN Annual Report 2010 Highlights http://www.ippfen.org/NR/rdonlyres/0627AA35-AACC-4087-85D2-4C0AC1A19B80/0/IPPF_AnnualReport2010LowRes.pdf
[4] In conjunction with World’s Aids Day, RFSU together with RFSL and (The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights) and HIV-Sweden (The Swedish Association for HIV-Positive people) hosted a Conference on HIV and criminalization. Among the speakers are academics in the field of Criminal Law, representatives from the prosecution authorities as well as medical doctors specialized in infectious diseases and politicians.