Ten Reasons Why Criminalization of HIV Exposure or Transmission Is Bad Public Policy

Draft for Discussion
September 18, 2008
Open Society Institute (OSI)

Recent years have seen an increase in the number of prosecutions for HIV exposure or transmission, particularly in Europe and North America. In parts of Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, legislators have created new HIV-specific criminal offenses, and prosecutions are on the rise.

The push to apply criminal law is often driven by the wish to respond to serious and legitimate concerns about the ongoing rapid spread of HIV in many countries, coupled by what is perceived to be a failure of prevention efforts. These concerns are legitimate and need responses. However, a closer analysis of the complex issues raised by criminalization of HIV exposure or transmission reveals that criminalizing is unlikely to prevent new infections and may have many potential adverse consequences for both public health and human rights.

The attached draft document provides ten reasons why applying criminal law to HIV transmission is an unjust and ineffective public policy. In cases where individuals purposely or maliciously transmit HIV with the intent to harm others, existing criminal laws are sufficient to prosecute the offender. The document shows that, rather than introducing laws criminalizing HIV exposure and transmission, countries need to reform laws and policies that stand in the way of evidence-informed prevention and treatment efforts, including providing justice to women.

The document will be finalized in late October, after comments and input have been received from a wide variety of organizations working on HIV/AIDS,human rights, and gender issues. In addition to English and French (which will become available soon), we hope to make the final document available in many other languages, and to disseminate it widely.

Readers are invited to provide comments and input to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it by Friday, October 10, 2008. Organizations are also invited to endorse the document. All endorsing organizations will be listed in the final publication.

The call and the draft document are also available at

www.soros.org/health/10reasons.

Ralf Jergens

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