Criminalization : stop

The question of criminalizing people who have supposedly
contaminated their partners has been a much debated issue for long. In countries such as the USA, court cases have been made against people accused of consciously infecting others with the HIV virus. But this is a global issue, affecting both the Northern and Southern countries ; there have been demands everywhere at some stage to condemn, even imprison PWA’s in specialised units - take Sweden or Cuba as examples.

Whatever the context, legal action to determine who is guilty or responsible for contamination is unacceptable and ineffective. Whatever the circumstances of a contamination, as tragical as they may be, it is clear that the goal of a public health policy open to people’s real life experience must not be to criminalize or repress people by law.

It takes two to have sex : it is therefore a responsibility
shared by HIV-positive and HIV-negative people. The fact that some people don’t protect themselves is a matter of concern for everyone. Qualifying contamination as a crime, or else as a poisoning offence for instance, would suppose that all HIV-positive people know their serological status. So, not taking an HIV test would be a means of avoiding possible legal action in case of contamination. Clearly, criminalization works against effective HIV prevention and testing.

Instead of promoting legal action, it would be more worth-while to support prevention campaigns targeting heterosexual and lesbian and gay people, with or without long-term partners, so as to remind them they are in danger if they don’t protect themselves and are endangering people they have sex with. Sexual responsibility must be accorded greater importance than criminalization.

Obviously, repression is never going to change people’s sexual practices. We can’t make people think about their sexuality and sexual practices by force. Rather, for long-term HIV prevention strategies to be effective, the weight must be put firmly on education and sexual responsibility.