Launch of the NAPWA Criminalisation Monograph

“The key to limiting HIV transmission lies in behaviour modification in an enabling environment,” Senator Louise Pratt told the launch of the NAPWA HIV criminalisation monograph in Canberra today.

The launch was hosted by Senator Pratt, who chairs the Parliamentary Liaison Group for HIV/AIDS, Blood-Borne Viruses [1]A small infective organism which is incapable of reproducing outside a host cell. and STIs [2][Sexually Transmissible (or Transmitted) Infection] Infections spread by the transfer of organisms from person to person during sexual contact. Also called venereal disease (VD) (an older public health term) or sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). . Deputy chair Kay Hull MP officially launched the monograph, which she said was timely. “It really is time to have this discussion,” she said.

Speakers at the launch spoke passionately about the need to begin a new debate about the merits of laws criminalising HIV transmission and the need for a nationally consistent approach which treats HIV transmission as a health issue first and reserves criminal sanctions only for cases where they are clearly justified.

At a time when a new national HIV strategy is being developed to refocus Australia’s HIV prevention efforts, “the criminalisation of HIV transmission can undermine this work,” Senator Pratt said. The Parliamentary Liaison Group would work with NAPWA on a submission to the Attorney-General, she said.

• Watch a video of the launch speech [3].

The other speakers were NAPWA President Robert Mitchell, and contributing authors Sally Cameron, Michael Hurley and David Menadue, who in turn spoke on the major aspects covered in the monograph: legality, morality and reality.

PDF of David Menadue’s speech is attached below.

Attachment	Size	Type
David Menadue's Speech [4]	16.12 KB	PDF