Verdict on a virus spotlights the human rights implications of criminalization and advocates for alternatives.

Speakers at the launch included

• Gill Greer, Director General, International Planned Parenthood Federation
• Widney Brown, Senior Director, International Law, Policy and Campaigns, Amnesty International
• Lisa Power, Corporate Head of Policy and Public Affairs, Terrence Higgins Trust
• Angelina Namiba, Programme Lead on the National African HIV Prevention Programme, African HIV Policy Network
• Julian Hows, Researcher, Global Network of People Living with HIV
• Neil Gerrard, MP, British Labour Party

Criminal law is a blunt instrument for HIV prevention.

It raises serious human rights concerns and risks undermining our hard won gains in the global response to HIV.

“Today one of the most pressing issues in the AIDS epidemic is the use of criminal statutes and criminal prosecutions against HIV transmission. Such laws are increasingly wide in their application and frightening in their effects.

HIV is a virus, not a crime.

That fact is elementary, and all-important. Too often law-makers and prosecutors overlook it.”

Edwin Cameron, Justice of the Supreme Court, South Africa. 

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