Publications

The HIV Legal Network promotes the human rights of people living with HIV or AIDS and other populations disproportionately affected by HIV and criminalization, in Canada and internationally. In 2021, we undertook a planning process that would shape the strategic goals and priorities for the organization’s next five years (2022-2027). To do this, we sought … Read more

In 2021, the HIV Legal Network undertook a planning process that would shape the strategic goals and priorities for the organization’s next five years (2022-2027). To do this, we sought the input of a broad range of stakeholders, from partner organizations to people living with and affected by HIV and criminalization, to staff. All identified … Read more

In 2012, the Legal Network was fortunate to team up with filmmaker Alison Duke and four amazing women living with HIV in Canada on a project exploring the profound effects of criminalization on their lives. The result of this collaboration was Positive Women: Exposing Injustice (2012), a documentary film shown in Canada — and around the … Read more

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. 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

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

Seizing the moment to push for concrete and lasting change.

The HIV Legal Network and the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) make this submission in support of the plan of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (“CEDAW Committee”) to develop a new General Recommendation on Indigenous women on the topic of “equality and non-discrimination with a focus on Indigenous women and … Read more

This is a policy brief on the specific impact of HIV criminalization in Canada on women and gender-diverse people, including exploring how it contributes to, and manifests as a form of, gender-based violence. The brief identifies legal and policy issues that need to be addressed to reduce HIV criminalization and better protect women against gender-based … Read more

Guided by the past and working toward the future as we challenge wrongs, advance rights, and transform lives.