Publication Language: English

Drug Policy and the Fundamental Human Rights of Women who Use Drugs: Briefing paper to CEDAW

Across the world, women who use drugs endure intersecting forms of discrimination related to gender, drug use, HIV status, mental health conditions, and other factors. They are denied basic rights to equality and non-discrimination, life, the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health, family, information, privacy, and freedom from cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. While … Read more

Respect, Protect, Fulfill: Supporting the HIV Legal Network

Respect. Protect. Fulfill. You can help challenge wrongs, advance rights, and transform lives. Denied basic healthcare. Criminalized and vilified for love. Unfairly targeted by police. These abuses, and more, are too often the experience of people living with HIV and of communities affected by HIV. At the HIV Legal Network, our mission has always been … Read more

Human Rights Imperative: The HIV Legal Network in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Respect. Protect. Fulfill. You can help challenge wrongs, advance rights, and transform lives. In countries of the Eastern Europe and Central Asia (EECA) region, people who use drugs are routinely denied basic healthcare and harm reduction services. They are unfairly targeted by police and subjected to torture. Parents face losing custody of their children. There … Read more

Covering Risk: HIV Criminalization and Condoms

In Canada, people living with HIV can be criminalized for not disclosing their status before engaging in a sexual activity where there is a “realistic possibility of HIV transmission.” Although the possibility of HIV transmission when a condom is used ranges from negligible to none, the law remains unsettled about whether condoms are sufficient on … Read more

Caught in the Carceral Web: Anti-Trafficking Laws and Policies and Their Impact on Migrant Sex Workers

In Canada, a complex and multiscalar web of laws has been constructed to target sex trafficking. These laws range from federal prohibitions against human trafficking in the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and Criminal Code, to provincial laws that provide tools to raise awareness of the offence, to detect alleged traffickers and to provide victims … Read more

Media Advisory: LEADING SEX WORK AND LABOUR ISSUE EXPERTS TO LAUNCH CRITICAL REPORT ON IMPACTS OF ANTI-TRAFFICKING LAWS IN CANADA

Media Invited to Join Virtual Webinar on Law, Policy, and Migrant Sex Workers For immediate release  Members of the media are invited to attend the virtual launch of a groundbreaking report, “Caught in the Carceral Web: Anti-Trafficking Laws and Policies and their Impact on Migrant Sex Workers,” that maps the tangled web of Canadian anti-trafficking … Read more

Open Letter to Justin Trudeau: Prioritizing Drug Policy for Incoming Cabinet Members

The Right Honourable Justin Trudeau, P.C., M.P. Prime Minister of Canada Langevin Block Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A2 October 19, 2021 Dear Prime Minister: RE: Prioritizing Drug Policy for Incoming Cabinet Members As you well know, almost 23,000 people have died from an opioid overdose between January 2016 and March 2021, fueled by a contaminated drug supply … Read more

Intimate Conviction 2: Continuing the Decriminalization Dialogue volume

In November 2020, the HIV Legal Network hosted Intimate Conviction 2: Continuing the Decriminalization Dialogue conference online, inviting more than 30 expert speakers to share their knowledge and experience with laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy. We are now very pleased to share the edited volume of presentations from this conference. Here you will find personal stories of … Read more

News Release: HIV LEGAL NETWORK RECEIVES $124,000 OTF GRANT

HIV LEGAL NETWORK RECEIVES $124,000 OTF GRANT Toronto, ON (September 27, 2021) – Earlier this year, the HIV Legal Network received a six-month, $124,000 Resilient Communities Fund grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF). The Resilient Communities Fund grant program was developed to help the non-profit sector recover and rebuild to effectively meet the needs … Read more

Criminalization and stigma exacerbate violence against women who use drugs in the Russian Federation

Criminalization and stigma exacerbate violence against women who use drugs in the Russian Federation Report in relation to the 9th Periodic Report of the Russian Federation CEDAW/C/RUS/9 This report is submitted by Andrey Rylkov Foundation for Health and Social Justice (ARF) on behalf of the Russian Civil Society Mechanism for Monitoring of Drug Policy Reforms. … Read more