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Prosecutions of HIV Positive People Must End
12th Aug 2008

Mexico 2008 World Aids Conference closes to clarion call to end prosecutions of people living with HIV

End the criminalisation of HIV. That was the closing call from the conference of experts and campaigners meeting in Mexico City for the largest international HIV conference in the world, which is held every two years.

The man who made the demand was Justice Edwin Cameron, a High Court judge from South Africa.
He is a well-known and greatly respected figure and, remarkably, the only high-ranking government official in the whole of Africa to be openly HIV positive.

prosecutions on collision course with public health
Delegates from all over the world with differing laws, variously applied, warned that punitive laws are on a collision course with public health.
Far from helping reduce transmission, there is mounting evidence that they harm testing and prevention initiatives and increase stigma for people living with HIV.

Justice Cameron's global campaign is likely to gather significant momentum. Eight years ago, he used the same conference stage to call for universal access to HIV treatment for everyone who needs it. Today, three million people in developing countries have access to HIV drugs, and the target is for universal access by 2010.

public health own goal
George House Trust has consistently campaigned against the prosecution of HIV positive people for exactly these reasons. We predicted the damage it would do to public health, the harm to testing campaigns and the increased stigma. Prosecutions are a public health own goal. Instead of helping to reduce transmission numbers, prosecutions increase the risks of transmission.

There's an interview with Justice Edwin Cameron at http://www.positivenation.co.uk/issue115/features/feature2/feature2.htm