Challenging Wrongs, Advancing Rights, Transforming Lives.

Mission

The HIV Legal Network promotes the human rights of people living with HIV or AIDS and other populations disproportionately affected by HIV, punitive laws and policies, and criminalization, in Canada and internationally. We do this through research and analysis, litigation and other advocacy, public education, and community mobilization.

Vision

We envision a world in which the human rights and dignity of all people, including people living with HIV or AIDS and other populations disproportionately affected by HIV and criminalization, are respected, protected, and fulfilled; where all people understand and can exercise their human rights; and where laws and policies facilitate access to prevention, care, treatment, and support.

Values

The work of the Legal Network is rooted in a number of guiding values:

  • The centrality of human rights in the response to HIV and other health concerns;
  • A focus on the rights of populations disproportionately affected by HIV, punitive laws and policies, and criminalization;
  • A commitment to partnership and ensuring the equitable and meaningful participation of people with lived and living experience in our work and in defining and implementing policies and programs;
  • Ensuring the equitable and meaningful engagement of both francophones and anglophones in our work, and ensuring that our resources on domestic issues are accessible in both of Canada’s official languages;
  • A commitment to action and activism to make concrete political and social change;
  • A commitment to employing an intersectional feminist lens in our work and on all of our issues;
  • A commitment to confronting and drawing attention to anti-Black racism and other forms of racism in our work and on all of our issues;
  • A commitment to reconciliation and to centering Indigenous perspectives in our work and on all of our issues, including the Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Calls for Justice of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls;
  • Accountability to the communities we serve and to donors, including transparent reporting and effective use of resources;
  • A commitment to global responsibility and engagement, to stand in solidarity with people living with HIV and affected populations internationally and to expand the reach of our human rights work; and
  • A commitment to excellence in all areas of our work.