What social institutions would do a better job at reducing HIV transmission than the criminal justice system?
HW: In terms of the response to HIV from Australia and New Zealand, and in Europe, the response was absolutely driven from bottom up. It was a partnership approach between governments and NGOs. There were laws that protected those with HIV from discrimination and stigma. There was funding provided that was sex positive rather than all about abstinence or closing down bath houses or acting in a draconian way toward gay men, the community most affected in Western countries at the beginning. A real belief in empowerment and a real funding of projects from the bottom up, a real ownership of the response by the gay community, a partnership approach between governments and communities – that’s what turned the epidemic around in our part of the world. AS: Why should those who are untouched by the AIDS epidemic care about what’s happening in the criminal justice system? HW: Why would they not care? Why would they care about people with HIV being criminalized? Because it’s a human rights issue;
