A Helping Hand: Legal Issues Related to Assisted Injection at Supervised Injection Facilities

According to the current legal framework and professional guidelines in Canada, safe injection facility (SIF) staff cannot assist clients in the administration of their drugs and SIF clients cannot help each other inject. However, recent evaluations show that the HIV prevalence rate for people who require assistance when injecting illegal drugs is double that of … Read more

Do Not Cross: Policing and HIV Risk Faced by People Who Use Drugs

This paper reviews the research literature of relevance to Canada on the impact of law enforcement practices on HIV/AIDS prevention, care and treatment for people who use illegal drugs. We consider the impact of national and provincial/state laws and municipal bylaws or regulations, as well as the impact of policing at a local level. We … Read more

Closed to reason: time for accountability for the International Narcotic Control Board – Commentary in Harm Reduction Journal, 2007, 4:13

“For more than two decades, the International Narcotic Control Board (INCB) has tried to stop harm reduction and its HIV prevention programs. This posture is based on a fundamental misunderstanding of their responsibilities and of drug addiction itself — i.e. as a public health and clinical care matter made criminal by decree. A recent focal … Read more

Prevention and Protection: Enhancing Both HIV Testing and Human Rights in Canada

The goal of widely available and utilized HIV testing services can be pursued in many ways. At the federal level and in some provinces, governments in Canada state their commitment to human rights-based responses to HIV/AIDS. This not only means ensuring access to HIV testing as part of protecting and promoting the right to health, … Read more

HIV Testing

This is a series of 12 info sheets on HIV testing in Canada. Evolution of HIV testing policy and technology in Canada Shifting HIV testing policies Consent to HIV testing Counselling Anonymous HIV testing Confidentiality Access to HIV testing HIV testing and pregnancy Rapid HIV testing Home HIV testing Mandatory and compulsory testing for HIV … Read more

Getting the Regime Right – Brief to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology regarding Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime

Canada’s Access to Medicines Regime is not delivering on the country’s pledge to help developing countries get affordable medicines. The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network recommends a number of changes that will help fix the current, flawed Regime. Our central recommendation would replace the existing process for obtaining a compulsory licence with something considerably more streamlined … Read more

HIV/AIDS and HCV in Prisons – A Select Annotated Bibliography (Second edition)

This document, written by former Legal Network Executive Director Ralf Jürgens and published by Health Canada, aims to: increase knowledge of and access to the literature on issues related to HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in prisons; and increase the capacity of governments, non-governmental organizations,and researchers to respond effectively to the challenges posed by … Read more