Decriminalization of HIV: developing a unified strategy

November 13, 2023

The development of a unified strategy in the community of people living with HIV (PLHIV) on decriminalization of HIV was discussed by the participants of the meeting on November 13. The meeting with the participation of the staff of the KNCDIZ of the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Kazakhstan was organized by the Kazakhstan Union of People Living with HIV and UNAIDS.

The audience was presented with the results of the analysis of the legal environment in the context of the criminalization of PLHIV to determine the list of general and special regulatory legal acts in the Republic of Kazakhstan establishing criminal, administrative and/or other liability for HIV transmission.

The active discussion concerned Article 118 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The day before, a study was conducted on the attitude of the PLHIV community to this article. The results showed that there is no consensus within the community regarding this article.

Nurali Amanzholov, President of the Kazsoyze of PLHIV, spoke in detail about the proposed legislative changes to the regulatory legal acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which contain provisions on establishing responsibility for PLHIV for putting at risk and transmitting HIV.

The relevance is dictated by the need for compliance of national criminal legislation with international standards and recommendations in the field of criminalization of HIV transmission. Since 2005, WHO has excluded HIV from the list of infections that pose a danger to others and transferred it to a controlled chronic disease.

The recommendations of UNAIDS on "Stopping the overly broad criminalization of HIV" indicate: "The application of general criminal legislation should be limited to cases of intentional HIV infection (for example, when a person knows his HIV status, acts with the intention of transmitting HIV and actually transmits the virus), taking into account available and reliable scientific and medical data on HIV, methods of its transmission, prevention and treatment.

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