Govt to Withdraw Criminalizing Wilful HIV/AIDS Transmission

The government is set to withdraw a clause in the Criminal Laws Amendment (Protection of Children and Young Persons) Bill that listed wilful HIV/AIDS transmission to a partner as a criminal offence.

The bill, which is currently before parliament, had sought to re-criminalize deliberate HIV/AIDS transmission, despite the fact that the Marriages Act had previously decriminalized it.

However, Justice Minister Ziyambi Ziyambi stated that the way the clause was originally drafted was problematic. The government’s policy direction is to only apply prosecution if deliberate HIV/AIDS transmission occurs in aggravating circumstances, such as rape or offenses involving young persons.

“The assumption that we are coming from is, young persons are not sexually active and it is not very difficult to prove once you have been convicted,” Ziyambi said. “Medical reports are there to prove that the young person contracted HIV and STIs and it should be an aggravating factor on sentencing.”

Ziyambi acknowledged that it is very difficult to prove wilful HIV transmission, and that criminalization does not effectively reduce transmission rates. There are also issues around discordant couples where one partner does not contract HIV.

As a result, the government plans to amend the clause to focus solely on cases where HIV/AIDS transmission is an aggravating factor in offenses against young persons, rather than a general criminalization of transmission.

This move comes after some legislators and members of the public had expressed reservations about re-introducing the clause that had been repealed with the Marriages Act. They argued that it unfairly targets women and is difficult to prove.

The Criminal Laws Amendment (Protection of Children and Young Persons) Bill also seeks to raise the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 in Zimbabwe.