October 20, 2017 -- It’s been a busy few weeks at the Legal Network as staff members have travelled to Geneva, Kingston (Jamaica), and Moscow, and the effects of their work is being felt across the globe. As a direct result of the Legal Network’s advocacy, UN human rights bodies recently challenged the criminalization of people who use drugs in Canada and Russia. In response to the our written submission and on-the-ground advocacy in Geneva, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Raci

A message from the Canadian HIV AIDS Legal Network: The international movement against HIV criminalization is growing, with renewed calls for action and advocacy — most recently at the 2016 International AIDS Conference in Durban, South Africa. During a week of discussions, attendees regularly underscored the importance of intersectionality in the global efforts to end the punitive and abusive laws that harm people living with HIV and other marginalized communities, including racialized p

It was a beautiful moment: Canada’s statement this moth to the plenary assembly of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) in Vienna, the primary forum in which countries debate global drug policy.  The term “harm reduction” is so contentious that it has yet to appear in any CND resolution. And in recent years, Canada has joined the likes of Russia at the Commission in objecting to even mentioning UN agency documents that recommend evidence-based harm reduction services such as needl

Dr. Mark Tyndall speaking at CAHR 2014 last week. Last week at CAHR 2014 in St Johns, Newfoundland the most easterly city in North America was buzzing with breaking news of a promising development in the community response to the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. For here at CAHR was released a consensus statement from seventy doctors saying that “current Canadian law is going too far and ignoring the science.  . . speaking out against the many unjust prosecutions against HIV-positive

A group of HIV organizations is relieved to learn that a Barrie, Ontario judge has found “JM,” an Ontario woman charged with aggravated sexual assault for allegedly not disclosing her HIV-positive status  before sex, not guilty of aggravated sexual assault for oral sex. The act was deemed to pose no realistic possibility of HIV transmission. “She should never have had to fight the oral sex charge,” said Jessica Whitbread, Global Chair of the International Community of Women with

It’s a quiet Wednesday night, a little too quiet. A little over two weeks ago, I turned my social networking apps on my smart phone off. I have also stayed away from any websites that I frequent for possible chat and meeting people. No, I’m not depressed or dating anyone, but rather, a sense of complete immobilization in one aspect of my life has come over me.  Since the end of my long-term relationship seven months ago, I have grappled with disclosure. How do I approach this new reality

Executive Director Richard Elliott said it best. “This year has had more challenges than achievements” he confessed to an attentive crowd at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s 20th anniversary gala in Toronto this past week. Here’s what the Legal Network has faced in the space of a few short months.  Funding cuts, courtesy of the Federal Government who will no longer fund anything even smelling slightly of advocacy. A stinging defeat at the Supreme Court where two high profile a

Richard Elliott: This has been an important year for the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. In recent weeks you have likely heard from us with updates on critical issues that affect the lives of people living with and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS. I wanted to inform you directly about these activities, as we have been at the forefront of very important issues, with many clear victories. If you have a few minutes, please take the time to watch this short video update  below.  I would li

September 25, 2012 – The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Prisoners with HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN), CATIE, the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN) and Steven Simons, a former federal prisoner, launched a lawsuit against the Government of Canada over its failure to protect the health of people in prison through its ongoing refusal to implement clean needle and syringe programs to prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) in federal institutions.  Steven Simons

Read our original story here.  Just two weeks ago, some 24,000 people gathered in Washington, D.C for the XIX International AIDS Conference. The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network was there, co-hosting the Human Rights Networking Zone, and sharing our important work on human rights and HIV in Canada and abroad. Activists, health workers, researchers, government officials and people living with HIV from around the world left the conference inspired and committed to turning the tide on the globa