Governments across the world use national laws to prosecute people living with HIV, particularly for not disclosing their HIV status, potentially exposing others to HIV (or being thought to), and unintentional HIV transmission.
HIV criminalisation is not only an abuse of human rights but each time someone is prosecuted it adds to the stigma faced by people living with HIV and reinforces discriminatory messages.
What are we doing?
We use our influence on global platforms to call for the decriminalisation of HIV. GNP+ is one of the founding partners of HIV Justice Worldwide – a global coalition that campaigns to abolish laws, policies and practices that regulate, control and punish people based on their HIV-positive status. Through the coalition, we monitor HIV criminalisation laws and prosecutions and build the capacity of communities of people living with HIV to understand the impact of criminalisation on HIV prevention, treatment and care and to engage in advocacy.
Over recent years there has been a spike in HIV criminalisation in some parts of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. So, we have joined EWNA and the SOS Project to create a regional hub to monitor criminalisation, develop advocacy campaigns and provide education and training. We also support national organisations in the region that are working to decriminalise HIV and offer small grants for local level advocacy.
