Disability Hate Crime Report

posted: 16/12/2008

The Crown Prosecution Service has published its 2008 report into hate crime prosecutions. One section of the report deals with disability hate crimes.

2007-08 is the first year that they have collected figures on disability hate crime.
• In the year ending March 2008, 183 defendants were prosecuted for disability incidents.
• In 2007-08, 77% of cases resulted in a conviction.
• In 2007-08, the guilty plea rate was 72%.
• Offences against the person were the most common offences linked with disability hate crime. Burglary, theft and handling were also common.
• In 2007-08, 83% of those prosecuted were white British and 82% were men.

There are no figures published for prosecutions involving attacks on people living with HIV. There might have been some cases, but we have no information on any cases. We know it happens.

Hate Crime Report 2007-2008

Global Criminalisation Scan

posted: 03/12/2008

Today, a new collection of worldwide information on the criminalisation of HIV transmission was published online

Criminalising the sexual transmission of HIV is a trend around the world. Hundreds of people have been sentenced for non-intentional HIV transmission, exposing others to the potential transmission of HIV, or failing to disclose their status to their sexual partners, with punishments of up to life imprisonment.
 

Stigmatising and partial law

People living with HIV and their advocates believe that these prosecutions hinder prevention efforts and increase stigma. Such criminalisation unjustly places responsibility exclusively on the shoulders of people living with HIV and diminishes the empowerment of individuals to gain control over their health irrelevant of their HIV status.
 

Global information bank

GNP+ and partner organizations have documented laws criminalising the transmission of or exposure to HIV to support advocacy efforts with providing an easily accessible ‘clearing-house’ of resources, research, and initiatives on the subject.
 

The Global Criminalisation Scan is the first attempt to document laws, judicial practices and case studies, around the criminalisation of HIV transmission on a world wide scale.

Information from over 150 jurisdictions worldwide is already online. Early in 2009, information from over 200 jurisdictions will become available.
 

References and resources

The Global Criminalisation Scan presents the laws on HIV transmission or exposure, as well as offering an analysis of individual cases of criminal prosecution. Where possible the Global Criminalisation Scan links back to media and other reports and research, including court proceedings.
Currently the Global Criminalisation Scan partners are the Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV ( Asia Pacific), GNP+ North America (North America), Grupo Genesis Panama Positivo on behalf of RedLA+ (Central/Latin America), and Terrence Higgins Trust (Europe/Central Asia).
 

The Network of African People living with HIV (NAP+) and the Caribbean Network of people living with HIV (CRN+) will be joining this group in 2009 and launching the sections on Africa and the Caribbean respectively. The Global Criminalisation Scan is based on earlier work carried out in 2005 by GNP+ Europe and Terrence Higgins Trust (THT).
 

Help keep it up to date and complete

The Global Criminalisation Scan is a living document. More information will be added as it comes in. We encourage everyone to send additional information on their country or region to the contacts listed on the regional pages or to the global e-mail address

Sexual Health in the NW

posted: 02/10/2008

The Sexual Health of the North West Conference 2008 was just a week ago and now almost all the conference papers and presentations (including on the 2007 NW HIV figures and one on criminalising HIV transmission) are now available on the conference website