Rhon Reynolds Head of Policy and Acting CEO, African HIV Policy Network AIDS Mexico City 3-8 August XVII International AIDS Conference 5 August Race and Immigration: the Criminalization of HIV transmission

Within a predominantly white culture (as the UK) the black body is different and thus framed within the dominant discourses as Other. The qualities and character of its Otherness, ones which overlap depending on the discursive or ideological purpose to which the black body is being put, are, variously sexual potency, desirability and promiscuity, laziness, economic unproductiveness, stupidity, and (especially young black males ) criminality. These qualities when combined with fears about HIV and about the impact of immigration and asylum from Africa on the UK’s economy, culture and mores, serve to create a heady and dangerous climate of fear and mistrust and to increase already present racist hostility. Nowhere have these elisions found extreme expression in England and Wales than in the cases involving reckless transmission of HIV. Intimacy and Responsibility: the Criminalisation of HIV Transmission, Matthew Weait

HIV and black African Communities in the UK HIV-infected persons accessing care by prevention group, UK: 2006 Children infected vertically MSM -white 39% MSM - non-white 4.4% Het – black African Het - white 10% 36% Heterosexuals - all other ethnic groups 5.0% IDU 2.8% Blood product recipients 1.0% 2.3% Epidemiology of HIV among black Africans in the UK impact of migration & a highlight of gender inequalities Dr Valerie Delpech, Health Protection Agency, March

HIV and black African Communities in the UK Black African are rendered significantly less powerful than other groups by a range of factors including:  Social and institutional racism  anti-asylum discourses and practices  the capacity to spread disease and to drain state resources.

Immigration policy and legal responses towards African people with HIV  Dispersal, Deportation, Detention, Destitution  Charging for HIV treatment  Government review of “imported infections”

Criminalization of HIV transmission in England and Wales Are the people prosecuted for HIV transmission in the criminal courts representative of the UK epidemic? NAT, April

Response from the Press

Response from the Press

Response from the Press  Coverage primarily negative about migrants/ immigration Migrants rarely personified or quoted.  Coverage generally “faceless” unless subject is prosecution: references to “cases”, “victims”, “sufferers”.  Immigration: migrants as fraudsters/cheats; HIV status presented as further evidence of “degeneracy”.  Prosecution: people who have transmitted HIV are presented as criminals; immigration status presented as further evidence of “degeneracy”.  Poor understanding of terminology: interchangeable use of “HIV”, “AIDS”, “migrant”, “illegal immigrant”, “asylum seeker”. HIV and Migration in the British Press, Victoria Field Terrence Higgins Trust NAHIP Conference, May 2006 Start the Press, How African communities in the UK can work with the media to confront HIV stigma, AHPN and Panos London,

Impact on African communities  ….media coverage concerning criminalisation makes the stigma associated with having HIV far worse. African people living with HIV in particular are concerned about the impact of these prosecutions on their own lives, especially those who see gender and racial bias in the criminal prosecution system and the media (Dodds et al. 2004a). Grevious Harm, Sigma Research, October

 October 2004 NAT/THT wrote to Crown Prosecution Service and to the Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality  CPS –Working Group on the Transmission of Serious Disease  Involved CPS, HIV sector, senior clinicians, Department of Health, metropolitan police  Subgroups  Public Health  Legal  Equality and Diversity  Equality and Diversity Impact Assessment Report (2007)  Guidance published March 2008  CPS says in its Policy Statement  We will be mindful of any indications that there is a disproportionate impact on any particular group of individuals that we may prosecute. Informing policy and guidance for prosecutors

Moving forward?

Moving forward?

Thank you Thanks to Sigma Research and National AIDS Trust