Zimbabwe working on decriminalising willful HIV transmission

Zimbabwe’s Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs minister Ziyambi Ziyambi has told parliament that his government is working on decriminalising willful HIV transmission.

His administrations reasoning is that it promotes stigmatisation of those with HIV. Ziyambi was speaking in parliament on Wednesday.

Section 79 (1) of the Criminal Codification and Reform Act on deliberate transmission of HIV reads: “Any person who knowingly that he or she is infected with HIV, or realising that there is a real risk or possibility that he or she is infected with HIV, intentionally does anything or permits the doing of anything which he or she realises involves a real risk or possibility of infecting another person with HIV, shall be guilty of deliberate transmission of HIV, whether or not he or she is married to that other person and shall be liable to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years.

“It shall be a defence to a charge under subsection (1) for the accused to prove that the other person concerned knew that the accused was infected with HIV and consented to the act in question, appreciating the nature of HIV and the possibility of becoming infected with it.”

Rights activists have been calling for the removal of the law. They say that the millions who have HIV in the country are treated as potential criminals for having the condition.