On World AIDS Day, the Human Dignity Trust (HDT) says that the decriminalisation of consensual same-sex intimacy is key to stemming the rise in global HIV and AIDS rates.
Sixty-five countries worldwide still outlaw same-sex sexual conduct, yet criminalisation brings stigma and shame and hinders the availability, access and uptake of HIV prevention, testing and treatment services for LGBT people. The opponents of LGBT human rights often use HIV transmission as a reason to support criminalisation in court proceedings, but this argument is empirically false and legally unsound. It is criminalisation that fosters further transmission and fuels the HIV pandemic. On World AIDS Day, the Human Dignity Trust urges lawmakers to scrap these stigmatising laws.
New and regressive legislation is also hindering crucial public health interventions. In a recent interview with Context, Clarkson Afram, a public health officer based in Ghana, said that the country’s proposed anti-LGBT criminal law could ‘make HIV rampant’ and limit the work of vital not-for-profit organisations serving gay and bisexual men and trans people in the country.
Cuts to global HIV and AIDS funding and the recent proposed closure of the UNAIDS Secretariat come at a time when public health experts are reporting that new infection rates are on the rise, particularly among vulnerable and criminalised groups such as men who have sex with men and sex workers.
According to UNAIDS, discrimination and criminalisation are pushing people further from care. The UN agency has stated that up to six million people could become newly infected with HIV, and four million people could die from AIDS-related causes between 2025 and 2029, due to funding cuts.
Decriminalisation of consensual same-sex intimacy can ensure that the people most in need of vital health care are reached and feel safe to access preventative services and treatment. Research has repeatedly shown that this will reduce the prevalence of HIV transmission worldwide, while simultaneously freeing the LGBT community from the repressive laws that make them vulnerable to discrimination and violence, says the Human Dignity Trust.
Notes to editors
- Read our 2015 publication, Criminalising Homosexuality and Public Health: Adverse Impacts on the Prevention and Treatment of HIV and AIDS.Â
- Learn more about the criminalisation of same-sex intimacy globally through our Map of Jurisdictions that Criminalise LGBT People.Â
- The Human Dignity Trust works with LGBT activists and lawyers around the world to defend human rights in countries where private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity is criminalised. We provide free technical legal assistance to local organisations and lawyers that are challenging criminal laws that persecute people on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
For more information and to arrange interviews, contact:Â
James Aldworth, Communications Manager, Human Dignity TrustÂ
E: [email protected]Â
T: +44 (0)7394 805140
