Category: HIV and the Law

The Positive Living Society of British Columbia has just published a resource aimed at helping PLHIV talk with others about their HIV status, and reducing HIV stigma. It is entitled “Disclosure: Telling Someone You Are Living with HIV.” This new resource is based on the lived experience of PLHIV and includes helpful information on planning… Read more »

Researchers at the University of Toronto are seeking individuals to participate in a project aiming to explore and understand the intersection of immigration status and racialization related to the criminalization of HIV in Canada. It asks: What is the significance of immigration status and racialization for the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure in Canada? 

Positive Living BC is asking for support in their campaign calling for new HIV non-disclosure charge guidelines in BC. Right now in BC, around 13,000 people living with HIV are susceptible to prosecution based on the current interpretation of sexual assault provisions in the Criminal Code by the Supreme Court. Scientific evidence demonstrates that there… Read more »

New Resources: Criminalization of HIV non-disclosure Access our new suite of multimedia resources on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure — an updated set of info sheets, two short videos breaking down the current problematic state of the criminal law in Canada, and a webinar series explaining an individual’s rights and responsibilities with respect to HIV… Read more »

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has been “down under” during what passes for winter in Melbourne, attending AIDS 2014 last week – and amidst several presentations and various sides meetings with human rights advocates, the Legal Network also co-hosted the busy and successful Human Rights Networking Zone at the conference.The Zone opened with a packed… Read more »

Please find a position paper (and executive summary) on HIV criminalization prepared by Positive Living BC and sent to the Ministers of Justice and Health (and others) on June 25. Because new Charge Assessment Guidelines are the only way we in BC can mitigate the damage otherwise done by the October 2012 decisions of the… Read more »

By Sue-Ling Goh EDMONTON — When HIV-AIDS first hit North America in the 1980s, diagnosis almost always meant early death. As the virus spread out of control, the legal system began to see unprecedented cases: people with HIV charged with serious offences – most commonly aggravated sexual assault. Since the early 1990s, more than 150… Read more »

Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network has new brochure resources

Know Your Rights is a series of brochures addressing the privacy rights and disclosure obligations of people living with HIV in a variety of day-to-day contexts. Using a question-and-answer format, the brochures provide practical and accessible legal information. The first four brochures in the series are now available: Disclosure at work Accommodation in the workplace… Read more »