The Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization (CCRHC) has previously called for changes to the federal Criminal Code that would limit HIV criminalization. This call was in the Coalition’s Community Consensus Statement released in 2017. Since then, Coalition members have continued to press the federal government for action and have been developing some options for amendments to the Criminal Code.
To inform the next phase of our advocacy, the Coalition has launched a cross-Canada consultation about those options with people living with HIV, people working in the HIV response, legal and human rights experts, and activists. The Coalition wants your input.
We want to ensure that our community has the tools to understand the implications of various proposals for law reform. We want to be prepared to address complex and sensitive issues and technicalities that will arise during the process of drafting proposed changes to the Criminal Code and then campaigning for them. We want to be prepared for difficult conversations and decisions in negotiations with lawmakers, if and when we can get a bill introduced in Parliament. Outcomes of the consultation will help ground our efforts in the expertise, needs, and input of the HIV community and our allies as we work to limit criminal prosecutions against people living with HIV.
Out of this consultation we will develop a document that outlines our path forward and recommendations for changes in the Criminal Code. It will also help mobilize the HIV community and our allies in the major advocacy effort that will be needed to see the law changed for the better.
We encourage you to read this background document before completing the survey. It provides more details about the current state of the law on HIV criminalization in Canada and some options for amendments to the Criminal Code that the Coalition is considering. Reading it will help you answer the series of questions in the survey.
The survey will run from August 23 to October 22, 2021. The responses are anonymous.