Le VIH: un virus ou un crime?

HIV criminalization in Canada: the intersection between criminal law and public health in a Canadian context, and the consequences of our current approach. 

Cécile Kazatchkine is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, where she works on the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure, both domestically and internationally, as well as other issues at the intersection of human rights and HIV. Kazatchkine’s lecture will outline the contemporary criminalization of HIV, the impact of non- disclosure laws on people living with HIV, and the activist response. Cécile’s lecture will be accompanied by a screening of a recent documentary by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network entitled, "Consent: HIV Non-Disclosure and Sexual Assault Law" (original English version with French subtitles). In the film, feminist scholars, women working to end violence against women, and people living with HIV discuss the prosecution of HIV non-disclosure as sexual assault and the necessity of challenging this problematiclegal framing.

Called to the Paris Bar, Cécile Kazatchkine worked as counsel and a litigator before she joined the Réseau juridique in 2009. Cécile studied law at the Université Panthéon-Assas in Paris, Oxford University and the Sorbonne. She holds a degree in private law, a master’s degree in law (English and international), and a postgraduate diploma in public international law and international organizations.

The lecture will take place in French.