HIV-Specific Criminal Law: A Global Review

Abstract

Although medical and societal advances have succeeded in greatly reducing the spread of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in the three decades since HIV first confounded and crippled the globe, over two million people worldwide are still newly infected with the virus every year. HIV-specific criminal laws, present and often actively enforced in one-third of United Nations member countries, target people living with HIV (PLWH) for cases of exposure, non-disclosure, and transmission. The criminalization of acts specific to HIV is incompatible with current medical knowledge of HIV transmission, international human rights standards, and public health goals. These HIV-specific criminal laws do not reach the intended objective of reducing unsafe behavior that may spread HIV and in fact hamper HIV prevention efforts, reinforce hard-set societal stigma surrounding HIV and the associated acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), and perpetuate views of PLWH as dangerous criminals that hold sole responsibility for safeguarding the public from HIV infection. The public health and human rights concerns unveiled by the investigation of HIV-specific criminal laws around the world suggest a new course of action: to set aside attempts to use criminal law to govern the complex and nuanced nature of HIV infection and instead redirect limited resources to the continued expansion of historically successful, evidence-based, and rights-centered public health approaches to HIV prevention and treatment.