Overview
The need for global, equitable access to medicines is urgent. Too many people in developing countries are dying because medicines are not available at prices they can afford and health agencies have limited budgets to pay high prices for brand-name drugs. People die because they cannot afford to buy life.
Our work focuses on laws and policies that affect access to antiretroviral and other medicines, such as patents rules in international trade agreements and domestic legislation regulating the price of medicines.
This includes ensuring access to
- comprehensive care, treatment and support for people living with HIV;
- diagnostic tools (such as HIV testing kits), antiretroviral treatment, and other medicines; and
- other kinds of health and support services, including treatment for people with immune systems weakened by HIV, sexual and reproductive health services, addiction treatment, and mental health services.
Learn more:
Hard Time Persists: Healthcare and Harm Reduction in Canada’s Prison System
In 2007, the HIV Legal Network (Legal Network) published Hard Time: HIV and Hepatitis C Prevention Programming for Prisoners in Canada, exploring health and harm reduction policies and practices in Canada’s provincial, territorial, and federal prisons. Then, as now, the Legal Network confirmed that everyone benefits from improved healthcare in prison, and that imprisonment is … Read more
2025 Election Candidate Questions – Response from the Bloc Québécois
On Friday, April 11, the HIV Legal Network wrote to the party leaders in the Canadian Federal election with key questions on their party’s positions on issues related to HIV, human rights, and the law. Download the response from the Bloc Québécois, received on April 16, 2025 (French only):
2025 Election Candidate Questions – Response from the Green Party of Canada
On Friday, April 11, the HIV Legal Network wrote to the party leaders in the Canadian Federal election with key questions on their party’s positions on issues related to HIV, human rights, and the law. Download the response from the Green Party of Canada, received on April 22, 2025:
Submission to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Review of Canada at 32nd Session (March 3-21, 2025)
The HIV Legal Network (“Legal Network”) made this submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“Committee”) in advance of its review of Canada’s periodic report, detailing our concerns about Canada’s implementation of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (“Convention”) with respect to the rights of people living with … Read more
Canada Must Take a Human Rights-Based Approach to HIV Self-Testing
On International Testing Week, more than 40 organizations from across Canada sign statement of support This statement can be attributed to the HIV Legal Network, HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario and the Canadian AIDS Society. Toronto, ON (November 23, 2023) – Today, more than 40 health and human rights organizations across the country have … Read more
MEDIA STATEMENT: WORLD AIDS DAY 2021: FORTY YEARS OF HIV, FORTY YEARS OF PROGRESS
WORLD AIDS DAY 2021: FORTY YEARS OF HIV, FORTY YEARS OF PROGRESS The following can be attributed to the HIV Legal Network. November 30, 2021 – Toronto – Tomorrow is World AIDS Day — a day to reflect on the current state of HIV and AIDS in the world, where we started, and how … Read more
Human rights advocates eye legal action against Canadian, German, Norwegian and UK governments over global COVID vaccine inequality
Human rights advocates eye legal action against Canadian, German, Norwegian and UK governments over global COVID vaccine inequality Coordinated legal efforts call on “recalcitrant” governments to support proposed waiver of COVID-related intellectual property monopolies at the WTO 25 November 2021 Human rights lawyers have threatened legal action against the German, Norwegian, and Canadian governments today … Read more
Statement: Religious beliefs must not interfere with patients’ rights to accessible health care
The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, the Canadian Professional Association for Transgender Health (CPATH) and the HIV & AIDS Legal Clinic Ontario (HALCO), are jointly intervening in a landmark case before the Court of Appeal for Ontario regarding whether doctors can put their personal religious beliefs ahead of patients’ rights to health care.
As Battle Over NAFTA Investor Protections Heats Up, Trinational Coalition Delivers 400,000 Petitions Demanding Elimination of Corporate Rights and Tribunals
WASHINGTON, D.C., October 11, 2017 – Growing public opposition to the expansive corporate privileges at the heart of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) took centre stage as the fourth round of NAFTA talks began today in Washington, D.C. U.S., Mexican and Canadian civil society organizations delivered more than 400,000 petitions demanding that NAFTA’s … Read more