2023-04-28 17:39:11
For years, advocates have called for concrete action to end the criminalization of HIV in Canada. Consider, for example, the latest Community Consensus Statement from the Canadian Coalition to Reform HIV Criminalization.
As you may know, the federal government conducted, until last February, a public consultation on possible reforms to the Criminal Code, first claiming to be aware of an “overcriminalization” of people living with HIV . Although the latter is still unpublished, it is essential that the government act without further delay in drafting and making such changes to the law, in consultation with people living with HIV and the HIV sector.
The voices of Canadian HIV researchers, in many disciplines, are fundamental to a successful outcome to this fight. We invite you to add your voice by signing this open letter to the Ministers of Health and Justice: https://bit.ly/NonCrimininalisationVIH
We invite you to sign this letter no later than May 8th.
The current state of Canadian law, which criminalizes people living with HIV, is out of step with the scientific knowledge we have about HIV transmission. Nearly a decade ago, at the 2014 CAHR conference, scholars concerned about the overbreadth of Canadian criminal law published an important “Canadian consensus statement on HIV and its transmission in the context of criminal law”endorsed by dozens of scientific experts in basic science, epidemiology and clinical care. A similar global consensus statement of scientific experts was released on the occasion of AIDS 2018, also with the aim of preventing the misuse of the criminal law.
But the overuse of the criminal law continued. There is now a considerable body of social science evidence, in Canada and elsewhere, documenting the many harms of HIV criminalization. The federal government has repeatedly said it is concerned about the “over-criminalization of HIV” – but has yet to introduce legislation to change this. It is high time to act.
That’s why, as those working on the HIV response in Canada come together for CAHR 2023, we invite Canadian HIV researchers from a variety of fields and disciplines to sign this open letter to federal government to call on it to act.
The purpose of this letter is to show the extent of support from the Canadian HIV research community for legal change. If you are not a researcher, but still want to take action to demand change, you can do so by sending your message here.
(And if you are a member of an organization that has not yet indicated your support for the National Coalition’s Community Consensus Statement, you can do so here).
Please share this call for signatories email with other HIV researchers you would like to encourage to sign.
Thanks for your support,
Ken Monteith, director de la COCQ-SIDA
To sign the letter (in French): https://bit.ly/NonCrimininalisationVIH
To sign the letter: https://bit.ly/DecrimeHIV
1682742237
#Lets #criminalization #HIV #Canada