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The Presidential Advisory Council on
HIV/AIDS (PACHA) passed a resolution last week that calls for an end to federal
and state HIV-specific criminal laws and prosecutions.
While the resolution is only advisory,
it recommends that the departments of Justice and Health and Human Services
issue guidance and offer incentives to state attorneys general and state health
departments to eliminate HIV-specific laws. The advisory group also asks these
federal agencies to develop guidelines for how to approach HIV within criminal
and civil justice systems that are “consistent with the treatment of similar
health and safety risks.”
As the resolution notes, 32 states
and two territories have laws criminalizing people living with HIV.
In explaining the reason to repeal these laws, the
resolution reads:
People living with HIV have been
charged under aggravated assault, attempted murder, and even bioterrorism
statutes, and they face more severe penalties because law enforcement,
prosecutors, courts, and legislators continue to view and characterize people
living with HIV and their bodily fluids as inherently dangerous, even as ‘deadly
weapons. Punishments imposed for non-disclosure of HIV status, exposure, or HIV
transmission are grossly out of proportion to the actual harm inflicted and
reinforce the fear and stigma associated with HIV. Public health leaders and
global policy makers agree that HIV criminalization is unjust, bad public
health policy and is fueling the epidemic rather than reducing it.
PACHA is also requesting that state
and federal authorities review the cases of persons convicted under such laws
and overturn convictions if deemed appropriate. The group is calling on the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to “issue a clear statement
addressing the growing evidence that HIV criminalization and punishments are
counterproductive and undermine current HIV testing and prevention priorities.”
“Today’s announcement is an
important advancement in our collective effort to modernize unjust and
discriminatory HIV criminalization laws,” said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.),
co-chair of the Congressional HIV/AIDS Caucus in a statement last week. Lee
introduced the REPEAL HIV Discrimination Act in 2011, which never passed, and
served on the United Nations’ Global Commission on HIV and the Law.
“I join the President’s Advisory
Council on AIDS in calling on the Department of Justice and the Centers of
Disease Control and Prevention to issue clear guidance to states and public
health departments on the counterproductive effects of HIV criminalization
policies; we must end this clear discrimination against people living with
HIV,” Lee continued. “Criminalization laws breed fear, discrimination, distrust
and hatred, and we must end them.”
The White House declined to comment
on the resolution, but the National HIV/AIDS Strategy adopted by the Obama
administration in July 2010 does call for state legislatures to “consider
reviewing HIV-specific criminal statutes to ensure that they are consistent
with current knowledge of HIV transmission and support public health approaches
to preventing and treating HIV.”
Policymakers at the state level also
welcomed the resolution. Randy Mayer, chief of the Bureau of HIV, STD, and
Hepatitis for the Iowa Department of Public Health, said the resolution was a
new tool in advocates’ fight to repeal Iowa’s HIV-specific law.
“This resolution came at an excellent
time for Iowa,” Mayer said in an email to The American Independent.
State activists and public health
officials, including Mayer, have laid out a strategy to repeal the state’s law.
“The advocates in Iowa have also
aligned their efforts with a public health perspective, so the resolution was a
reinforcement of their justification,” Mayer said. “I think the more public
health entities that weigh in on this discussion the better.”
But while policymakers praise the
resolution, activists urge cautious optimism.
Sean Strub, executive director of
the anti-HIV-criminalization organization Sero Project, said the resolution was
appreciated, but the “real test will be in whether federal agencies and the
administration responds with the necessary urgency.”
Catherine Hanssens, executive
director of the Center for HIV Law and Policy, which runs the Positive Justice
Project, echoed Strub’s sentiment, noting that while the resolution is
important, PACHA “has no power to order anyone to do anything.”
“[HHS] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius
and President Obama both have the discretion to ignore the resolution’s
recommendations.”
Regardless, Hanssens said the
resolution is an important milestone in the battle to repeal HIV criminal laws
in the U.S.
“The work of advocates who pushed
for passage of the resolution is not over,” she said. “But we have passed a
major marker on the road to reform, and justice, for many people and
communities affected by HIV.”
The Friends of AIDS Foundation is
dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and
empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV
virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.
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