On June 14th, HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE Steering Committee member, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, held their 8th Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights. The Symposium featured moving stories from people who have experience being criminalised, and analysis from scientific experts and others active in the community. Click on the link to download the report in English or French.
Immediately folllowing the Symposium, the House of Commons Standing Committee of Justice and Human Rights released a ground-breaking report “The Criminalization of HIV Non-Disclosure in Canada” recommending that the Government of Canada works with each of the Canadian provinces and territories to end the use of sexual assault law to prosecute allegations of HIV non-disclosure. Read more about the report and its recommendations here.
The report is the result of a study of the ‘Criminalization of Non-Disclosure of HIV Status’ that ran between April and June 2019. Many Canadian experts testified as key witnesses to help MPs gain insight into why Canada’s current approach is wrong. HIV JUSTICE WORLDWIDE also submitted a brief to the committee, providing international context to Canada’s extremely severe approach to HIV non-disclosure.