HIV/AIDS policy & law review / Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · Dec 2009
Russia: despite legislative and procedural barriers, HIV-positive woman fights for custody of ten-year-old brother.
Svetlana Izambaeva, a well-known HIV-activist and educator in Russia, is seeking to obtain custody of her ten-year-old brother, Sasha. After their mother died, regional official refused Izambaeva custody because of her HIV-positive status. Consequently, the local child custody agency (organ opeki) decided to give Sasha to a foster family.
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · Dec 2009
Panel: challenging criminal charges for HIV transmission and exposure.
Justice Edwin Cameron, of the Constitutional Court of South Africa, served as moderator. He said that this topic was particularly relevant for "an African/Canadian setting" because African countries may use Canadian developments as justification for their efforts to address HIV transmission and exposure through criminal law. Justice Cameron said that Canada is internationally perceived as a human rights-respecting state and, thus, sets an example, particularly for African nations, on how to comply with human rights issues. ⋯ Barry Adam discusses the notion of a "duty to disclose" and how this affects HIV prevention. Lucie Joncas examines how the Supreme Court defined "fraud" in Cuerrier and describes a case before the Quebec Court of Appeal which may turn on whether the use of a condom or having a low viral load is considered not to constitute a significant risk of transmission. Finally, Michaela Clayton describes the trend in Southern African countries to adopt laws criminalizing HIV transmission or exposure, and explains that criminalization endangers women's health and lives.
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HIV AIDS Policy Law Rev · Dec 2009
Panel: emerging issues in Canada's drug policy--implications for HIV prevention and health promotion for people who use drugs.
This article contains summaries of the three presentations made during this panel. Carol Strike discusses various strategies that have been used to prevent HIV transmission among people who use drugs. Richard Elliott reviews the implications of the 2008 judgment by the British Columbia Supreme Court on Insite, the supervised injection facility in Vancouver. Finally, Senator Claude Nolin provides some observations on legislating in the area of drug law.
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Criminalization of HIV transmission and exposure is an ineffective tool for combating AIDS and a costly distraction from programs that we know work--programs such as effective prevention, protection against discrimination, reducing stigma, empowering women and providing access to testing and treatment. In this article, which is based on a public lecture he gave at "From Evidence and Principle to Policy and Action," the 1st Annual Symposium on HIV, Law and Human Rights, held on 12-13 June 2009 in Toronto, Canada, Justice Edwin Cameron analyzes the surge in criminal prosecutions, discusses the role that stigma plays in these prosecutions and makes the case against criminalization.