Publications

The HIV Legal Network and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation (CDPE) are grateful for the opportunity to complete this questionnaire and inform the Special Rapporteur on the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health’s forthcoming report to the General Assembly on the theme of racism and the right to health. This questionnaire focuses … Read more

In April 2022, the HIV Legal Network and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation made this submission to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, focusing on systemic racism and human rights violations by law enforcement officers against Africans and people of African descent, in the context of Canada’s drug laws and policies. … Read more

In April 2022, Sandra Ka Hon Chu, on behalf of the HIV Legal Network and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, deputed at the House of Commons Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights about Bill C-5, An Act to Amend the Criminal Code and the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. The remarks focused on the section … Read more

In 2012, the Legal Network was fortunate to team up with filmmaker Alison Duke and four amazing women living with HIV in Canada on a project exploring the profound effects of criminalization on their lives. The result of this collaboration was Positive Women: Exposing Injustice (2012), a documentary film shown in Canada — and around the … Read more

The HIV Legal Network, in collaboration with the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Centre on Drug Policy Evaluation, made a submission on drugs and drug policy to the Committee on the Rights of the Child, as it reviewed Canada’s compliance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. In the … Read more

On March 22, 2022, the HIV Legal Network hosted its 10th Symposium on HIV, Law, and Human Rights. This international event explores the relationship between HIV and human rights, how criminal laws can be reformed to uphold the rights of people living with HIV, and how those working in the sector can use their work … Read more

Canada has been identified as a global hotspot of HIV-related prosecutions. As of 2022, there have been well over 200 prosecutions for alleged HIV non-disclosure in Canada. Canada’s use of the criminal law in relation to HIV has been recognized as overly broad and punitive by a wide range of stakeholders including the federal government, … Read more

Here you will find the French translations of the English-language presentations from our 10th Symposium.      

Pre-symposium brief for participants of the 10th Symposium on HIV, Law, and Human Rights, outlining key, recent developments in the law of HIV non-disclosure.

In Canada, a person living with HIV can go to prison and be registered as a sex offender for life for not disclosing their HIV-positive status to a sexual partner in some circumstances. People are usually charged with (aggravated) sexual assault, due to the Supreme Court of Canada’s ruling that HIV non-disclosure can sometimes amount … Read more