The criminal law is a blunt instrument for HIV prevention. Yet from the UK to the USA, Mali to Mozambique, Azerbaijan to Australia, criminal laws are increasingly being used to prosecute HIV transmission or exposure. This undermines human rights and jeopardizes hard won gains in the global response to HIV.

 Verdict on a Virus: Public Health, Human Rights and Criminal Law – shows that a simplistic ‘law-and-order’ response to HIV and the way in which individual court cases are reported in the media only serve to intensify a climate of denial, secrecy and fear. This creates a fertile breeding ground for the continued and rapid spread of HIV.The publication brings together opinion from legal experts, human rights groups, medical and health professionals and HIV activists,  and is  illustrated with case studies mapping the spread of criminal laws relating to HIV. 

 Verdict on a virus (1.6 Mb)