Tuesday 24 July 2012
HIV Criminalization – An Epidemic Of Ignorance? Press Conference at AIDS 2012 (Press Release)
For Immediate Release
****MEDIA
ADVISORY****
Press Conference:
10am, Wednesday 25th July, Press Conference Room 2
HIV Criminalization –
An Epidemic Of Ignorance?
Laws and prosecutions that single out people with living with HIV
are ineffective, counterproductive and unjust.
As delegates from around the world meet this week in
Washington DC at AIDS 2012 to discuss how to "end AIDS" through the
application of the latest scientific advances, laws and policies based on stigma and ignorance are not only creating
major barriers to prevention, testing, care and treatment, but also seriously
violating the human rights of people living with HIV.
This is especially true in the United States, where 36 states and 2
territories have HIV-specific criminal statutes that single out people
living with HIV as potential criminals. However, this growing epidemic of bad
laws and prosecutions is a
global problem that requires an internationally
co-ordinated and concerted effort to overcome.
Come meet people living with HIV who have been involved in
both sides of a prosecution as well as some of the experts and advocates who
are part of a growing global movement, supported
by UNAIDS and the UNDP-led
Global Commission on HIV and the Law, working to ensure that the
application of criminal laws, if any, to people living with HIV is fair,
consistent, restrained, proportionate and appropriate, and serves justice
without jeopardising public health objectives and fundamental human rights.
As well as two very personal stories that embody just how
HIV criminalization is fundamentally wrong-headed and unjust, presentations will
include:
·
New data on the Top 15 global HIV
criminalization hot-spots
·
Preliminary results of SERO criminalization
survey highlighting the devastating impact of HIV criminalization in the United
States
·
The Positive Justice Project's consensus statement
and the latest information on Congresswoman Barbara Lee's REPEAL HIV
Discrimination Act
Hosted by (in alphabetical order):
·
Global Network
of People Living with HIV (GNP+), Netherlands
·
HIV Justice
Network, United Kingdom/Germany
·
INA
(Maori, Indigenous & South Pacific) HIV/AIDS Foundation, New Zealand
·
The SERO
Project, United States
·
Terrence
Higgins Trust, United Kingdom
·
UNAIDS,
Switzerland
Chaired by Paul
de Lay, Deputy Executive Director, UNAIDS, Switzerland, speakers will
include:
·
Nick Rhoades, HIV criminalization
survivor, United States
·
Marama
Pala, former complainant, New Zealand
·
Edwin J
Bernard, Co-ordinator, HIV Justice Network, and
Consultant, GNP+ Global Criminalisation Scan
·
Laurel
Sprague, Research Director - SERO, United States
·
Lisa Fager Bediako, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation/
Positive Justice Project, United States.
A question and answer session will follow. The press conference will end at
10.45am.
To arrange interviews with any of the speakers please
contact Edwin J Bernard via email or mobile.
Media Contact
Edwin J Bernard, Co-ordinator, HIV Justice Network
Mobile: +1.347.681.8411
Email: edwin(at)hivjustice.net
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