Deputies propose to remove a separate article 130 from the Criminal Code of Ukraine, which provides for criminal liability for infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) or another incurable infectious disease. The relevant bill 9398 was recommended to be adopted in the first reading by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Law Enforcement.
"Such a situation leads, on the one hand, to the existence of a gap in the criminal-legal protection of human health from guilty actions that led to infection with an infectious disease, on the other hand, to the stigmatization of persons due to their health status. The specified stigmatization is that HIV-positive people, as well as people suffering from venereal diseases, who are considered as potential criminals, are at risk of criminal liability. — indicate the people's deputies.
According to the authors, the proposed changes will enable HIV-positive people, people who have AIDS, or suffer from venereal diseases, to focus their efforts on treatment and the quality of their own lives, and not on fighting the fear of being punished.
People's deputies also indicate that "Ukraine is currently facing the challenge of a new wave of the HIV epidemic," and "one of the effective mechanisms for reducing the spread of HIV is the decriminalization of contacts and transmission of the disease."
"According to the estimated data of international organizations, there were more than 240 HIV-infected people in Ukraine at the time of the full-scale invasion. Considering the manifestation of HIV in the temporarily occupied territories, the state and society as a whole should already now create conditions to prevent the HIV epidemic after their deoccupation. Instead, people's fear of potential criminal liability will lead to a reluctance to get tested, which will have a negative impact on the epidemic situation. In addition, the presence of responsibility for knowingly putting another person at risk of HIV infection makes it possible to interfere in a person's private life, limit his right to reproduction and normal coexistence with the outside world." - believe the authors of the draft law.
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