Publication Language: English

Legal Network report calls for decriminalization of prostitution in Canada – HIV/AIDS Policy & Law Review 10(3)

In December 2005, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network released Sex, work, rights: reforming Canadian criminal laws on prostitution. The report examines the ways in which the prostitution-related provisions of the Criminal Code, and their enforcement, have criminalized many aspects of sex workers’ lives and have promoted their social marginalization. The Legal Network calls for the … Read more

Nothing About Us Without Us – Greater, Meaningful Involvement of People Who Use Illegal Drugs: A public health, ethical, and human rights imperative

This booklet summarizes the main issues addressed in the Legal Network’s paper on greater involvement of people who use illegal drugs. In particular, it explains why people who use illegal drugs must be meaningfully involved in Canada’s response to HIV/AIDS, hepatitis C (HCV), and injection drug use, and the benefits of greater involvement. The booklet … Read more

Letter to Vancouver Mayor-elect Sam Sullivan re: Insite

“Insite, Vancouver’s safe injection facility, is an essential harm reduction element of Vancouver’s “four-pillar” drug strategy. I am writing to you to seek your support for maintaining Insite as a harm reduction service and not allowing the Vancouver Police Department to turn it into a law enforcement tool…”

Sex, Work, Rights: Reforming Canadian criminal laws on prostitution

This report is the product of a two-year project on criminal law, prostitution and the health and safety of sex workers in Canada. We conducted a literature review; interviewed key informants (including through a collaboration with the Native Friendship Centre of Montréal); and held a two-day consultation in February 2004 attended by sex workers, former … Read more

Harm Reduction, HIV/AIDS, and the Human Rights Challenge to Global Drug Control Policy – Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2005

The global HIV/AIDS pandemic, and the role of unsafe drug injection as one of its principal drivers, have added to the list of harms associated with unsafe drug use. HIV/AIDS has highlighted ways in which prohibitionist drug policy causes or contributes to such harms and focused attention on the international regime of illicit drug control. … Read more

Prisoners Who Inject Drugs: Public Health and Human Rights Imperatives – Health and Human Rights: An International Journal, Vol. 8, No. 2, 2005

This article examines the human rights and public health implications of injection drug use in prisons with a specific focus on HIV and hepatitis C (HCV) viruses. The authors argue that prisoners who inject drugs have a right to access harm reduction measures — those that reduce the harmful consequences of drug use without necessarily … Read more