Zimbabwe to criminalise the deliberate spreading of HIV

"We are going to introduce new legislation which makes it a criminal offense for a person infected with AIDS or an STD to have a sexual relationship when they know that they have the disease," Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Emerson Mnangagwa told the Ziana news agency in May. "This will also apply to marriages." Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. More than one-quarter of Zimbabwe's population is said to be HIV-positive, with an estimated 300 people a week dying from AIDS-related illnesses. If the Criminal Law Amendment Bill is approved by Parliament later this year, those convicted of deliberately transmitting HIV or other STDs could be jailed for a maximum of 15 years, while rapists who infected people would be sentenced to at least 15 years in jail. Justice Minister Emerson Mnangagwa explained that if a person were accused of raping someone or spreading a disease, they would be tested for viruses before a hearing. "If found positive, the person will get the stiffer sentence, regardless of whether the person had prior knowledge or not, because the rape put the victim at risk of infection." The legislation comes two years after activist groups started lobbying for stiffer sentences for rapists infected with HIV. "When passed by Parliament, information on the new legislation should be made available to women, because we find that most of the women we receive here are married ones," said Priscilla Ndlovu of Zimbabwe's Women and AIDS Support Network.