Punitive laws promote HIV stigma
The criminalisation of HIV simply promotes stigma and undermines the remarkable global scientific advances and proven public health strategies that could open the path to defeating AIDS by 2030, Justice Edwin Cameron has said. The pioneering judge and activist from South Africa, who went public about his positive HIV status in 1999 was giving a key note address during a four day training for lawyers and media on HIV and TB criminalisation in Johannesburg recently. Justice Cameron began with an overview of how criminal HIV transmission and exposure laws are both HIV specific and those that use existing assault legislation, are “stunningly wide in their application and fearsome in their effects.”
He said there was need to question why criminal law singles out HIV-positive people for prosecution when the same Criminal Code powers are not being used against those who expose people to other potentially deadly conditions.'I feel a sort of intensity about these issues because of the path I have walked. I have been close to death from AIDS. I've had my life given back to me. And I'm still the only person holding public office in the whole of Africa who has spoken out about living with HIV.' He argued that laws are misconceived and an ineffective tool for preventing transmission since the majority of transmissions occur during consensual sex when neither partner is aware of their HIV status.
“The biggest fallacy is that criminal law protects those who are HIV negative. But all it does really is to double stigmatise people,” he stated. Being openly gay, Justice Cameron said he has also felt the sense of shame when he was first diagnosed. “You can’t understand HIV stigma until you understand sexual transmission of HIV”. Adding, “It is this shame that explains why we target HIV.” Justice Cameron emphasised on the role of human rights and the need to fight stigma and discrimination as an important element of taming the HIV epidemic.
He also referred to the motion unanimously adopted in November 2015 that was moved by Human Rights lawyer and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) leader Duma Boko and that was seconded by Ahmed Shaik Imam of South Africa during SADC-PF joint session. The motion had called on SADC member states to consider rescinding and reviewing punitive laws specific to the prosecution of HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure. It also reiterated the role by parliamentarians to enact laws that support evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment interventions that conform to regional and international human rights frameworks. “We have to go back a few steps and consider how we use power and mechanism of the use of law. It must be based on facts, not on stigma and stereotypes,” Justice Cameron concluded.