Critics say bill will deter people from getting the necessary testing and treatment, which will increase the spread of sexually transmitted infections. Oklahoma lawmakers are seeking to criminalize the spread of several more sexually transmitted diseases, a move critics say could turn nearly every resident into a felon. House Bill 3098 adds chlamydia, Hepatitis B, genital herpes, trichomoniasis, and human papillomavirus (HPV) infections to the list of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that are illegal to knowingly or recklessly spread. Anyone who does so would be guilty of a felony and coul ..read more

THE Government has listed HIV/AIDS as one of the sexually-transmitted infections (STIs), whose deliberate transmission to another partner will now be punishable under law. The Criminal Laws Amendment (Protection of Children and Young Persons) currently before Parliament has a clause that includes HIV/AIDS as one of the STIs, whose wilful transmission can be charged as a criminal offence. Other STIs that are punishable include syphilis, gonorrhoea and herpes, among others. Another objective of the Criminal Laws (Protection of Children and Young Persons) Amendment Bill is to raise the age of s ..read more

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Some at the state legislature believe the penalty for intentionally passing it along to someone else should not be as harsh with HIV no longer being the death sentence that it once was. “It really is now a chronic disease like diabetes, like hypertension even though the transmission is certainly not the same,” said Jennifer Avegno with the New Orleans Health Department. A task force was recently created to review the current data we have around HIV and how our state can update its laws. Health professionals today claim the law deters people from getting tested or trea ..read more

Translated via Deep.com – Scroll down for article in Portuguese The Bill seeks to increase the penalty by up to two-thirds in cases involving marital relations A bill presented by Mato Grosso do Sul Congressman Geraldo Resende (PSDB) is currently before the Chamber of Deputies in Brasilia, increasing the prison sentence for people who intentionally transmit HIV in marital relations. The congressman’s proposal increases the penalty from one to two thirds if the exposure to contamination is carried out by the victim’s spouse or partner. Resende points out in the proposal that the intentional tra ..read more

HARRISBURG – March 21, 2023 – State Senator Vincent Hughes and Representatives Benjamin Waxman and Malcolm Kenyatta announced legislation on March 20, 2024 that will repeal Pennsylvania’s felony sentencing enhancement for people living with HIV who are charged with prostitution. Removing the felony charge removes the last relic of HIV criminalization laws in Pennsylvania, one of nine states still subjecting people living with HIV to harsher penalties if charged with prostitution. In recent years other states including Georgia, Nevada, and California have modernized or repealed their prostituti ..read more

State lawmakers moving to repeal law that stigmatizes people living with HIV, increases public health risk Having a virus should not be a crime. Yet, in Maryland, people living with HIV can face prosecution and criminal penalties even when we have disclosed our status, used condoms or are virally suppressed through medication. Maryland has an outdated law from 1989 that makes it a misdemeanor for a person living with HIV who is aware of their HIV-positive status to “knowingly transfer or attempt to transfer” HIV to another person. A conviction under this law can carry a punishment of up to ..read more

By Stu Johnson HIV/AIDS is a disease that continues to affect thousands of people across the Commonwealth. It’s an issue getting attention in Frankfort as lawmakers consider legislation tied to the transmission of HIV. The focus is on decriminalization. The AIDS epidemic came about more than 4 decades ago. Since that time, a great deal has changed regarding how the disease is managed, which in the early 1980’s was deadly. There are laws tied to the illness that are being updated. Kentucky lawmakers are taking up a bill that makes intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS a Class A misdemeanor. It’s ..read more

On Tuesday 5th March the HIV Justice Network hosted a reception with the All Party Parliamentary Group for HIV and AIDS (APPGA) to mark the first global HIV Is Not A Crime Awareness Day. Baroness Barker, co-chair of the APPGA, Lisa Power former Policy Director at the Terrence Higgins Trust and the first chair of the HIV Justice Network’s Supervisory Board, spoke alongside our Executive Director, Edwin J Bernard.  The SERO Project’s, Kerry Thomas, an HIV criminalisation survivor, appeared via video. The event was attended by MPs and members of the House of Lords, as well as representatives ..read more

Translated from Spanish with Deepl.com – Scroll down for original article Activists and defenders of the human rights of people living with HIV have urged the Congress of Tlaxcala to pass an initiative to eliminate the crime of “danger of contagion” from the local Penal Code as soon as possible. Antonio Escobar Muñoz, director of the HIV and Human Rights programme of the LGBTTTQI+ collective, argued that it is essential to eliminate any discriminatory treatment based on health status. According to the activist, cases of discrimination and stigmatisation based on health status persist in Tlaxca ..read more

Translated with Deep.com – Scroll down for original article in Spanish With just 15 votes in favour from Morena deputies and their allies from the New Alliance Party, Labour Party, and the now non-party deputy Rigoberto García Negrete, the State Congress repealed the criminal offence known as “Danger of Contagion”, which criminalised people infected with the HIV virus. This action was carried out following the presentation of the opinion on the Bill with draft Decree, proposed by Deputy Alfredo Álvarez Ramírez, to reform Articles 77 and 119, and repeal Chapter I of the Seventh Title and Articl ..read more