I was diagnosed HIV positive in 1991. I am a member and staff member of the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW), which is the only international network run for and by HIV positive women. ICW promotes the voices of and advocates for changes in policies that improve the lives of all HIV positive women. We believe that all laws that uphold the criminalization of HIV transmission should be abolished. Criminalization is counterproductive to goals related to rights-based approaches to public health, reinforces stigma toward persons who are often already marginalized and fosters feelings of chaos and fear around HIV and sex.
On April 11th, Nadja Benaissa, a member of the highly successful German pop band No Angels, was arrested in Frankfurt for alleged criminal HIV exposure and transmission. She was placed on remand on the basis "that the strong suspicion of a crime and the risk she would reoffend were too great to ignore." She was released from prison 11 days after her detention.
HIV is a medical condition which promotes highly emotive responses from many quarters, many of which are based on lack of information and resultant fear, rather than on scientific fact. Many facts in the arrest and prosecution of Nadja Benaissa demonstrate the violation of rights faced by HIV positive individuals when HIV transmission and exposure is criminalized.
Benaissa was very publicly arrested before she went on stage at her concert in Frankfurt and her HIV status revealed by the public prosecutor's office. This public arrest and disclosure of her status is a violation of her rights to confidentiality and privacy. Further, this treatment increases stigma and discrimination against positive women by making people believe HIV positive women are all malicious criminals.
Allegedly, Benaissa did not inform her partners of her HIV serostatus. As an HIV positive woman I believe that it is each person's responsibility to ensure that they are engaging in healthy and safe sexual behavior. Criminalization of HIV transmission and exposure places blame on one sexual partner rather than encouraging equal responsibility in safe sex - exposing oneself to HIV is part of the risk of having sex. It is unfair to place all blame on the person with HIV.
While in prison, Benaissa was kept from her daughter. Criminalizing HIV positive women specifically means that the primary caretakers of their families and children are being put into jail.
The case of Benaissa represents some of the worst aspects of criminalization of HIV transmission and exposure: increased stigma, worsening discrimination, actively violating confidentiality, creating hysteria about HIV positive women as HIV vectors, and removal of a caretaker from her home and child.
As an HIV positive woman I am outraged that anyone be put through this ordeal and that judicial systems are prepared to enact laws that violate our rights in this way and in circumstances that are tainted by stigma and discrimination. ICW is actively working to end the criminalization of people living with HIV by advocating directly at the national and international level, supporting individuals who have been arrested through participation in broad based advocacy, and providing a deeper understanding of how criminalization laws will directly impact the lives of HIV positive women.
