It's not often that you get to feel that academic research and scholarship is really worthwhile, but sometimes things just click.
I wasproud to have been one of twenty academics, activists and civil society representatives from across the world who met in Oslo last week to finalise and launch of The Oslo Declaration. The Declaration calls on governments to decriminalise non-deliberate HIV transmission, exposure and non-disclosure. It draws attention to the fact that the criminalisation of HIV, far from having the beneficial public health effects its advocates claim, has the opposite effect of reinforcing HIV-related stigma and hindering HIV prevention efforts.
I have been researching this area for more than ten years now, and this Declaration is the most succinct and powerful statement yet about the need for, and importance of, decriminalisation. It represents the views of people who recognise - and do not deny - the ethical and moral complexity of the topic, but who agree that the negative impact of criminalisation on public health is so substantial that it must be challenged.
All credit to Edwin Bernard , who co-ordinated the drafting of the Declaration, and and Nicholas Feustel, who made the accompanying video.
After the meeting, I participated in a high-level conference convened by the Government of Norway and UNAIDS. The conference, which was opened by Michel Sidibé, Executive Director of UNAIDS, explored similar issues, focusing in particular on the relationship between scientific understanding of HIV risk and the impact of effective treatment and the use of criminal law. There was a real energy in the room, and I sensed a strong commitment on the part of participants for change.
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