Interview and text by Juulia Kela. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The use of Finnish criminal law to prosecute the transmission, exposure, or non-disclosure (not telling sexual partners about your positive HIV status) of HIV is an ongoing, understudied field of criminalization. Along with Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Finland is one of the six countries with the highest rates of prosecution per capita of people living with HIV (GNP+, 2010). To complicate matters, Finnish criminal cases about HIV transmission, exposure, or non-disclosure are held in secret \u2013 and as co-operative body of Nordic organizations for people living with HIV, HIV-Nordic stated in 2014:\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Neither has anyone counted all HIV <\/em>[legal] cases in Finland. It is estimated that there has been a total of 15-20 cases. The Supreme Court of Finland has ruled in a total of five cases since 1993.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Since this publication, there have been four more cases ruled by the Supreme Court: two in 2015, one in 2017 and one in 2021. These cases represent a variety of details, including whether or not the virus was transmitted. However, what these cases share is the stigmatizing effect they have. As director of NGO Positiiviset ry Sini Pasanen puts it: <\/p>\n\n\n\n It has definitely been one of the most stigmatizing matters, for sure the one that causes the most uncertainty.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0Many people living with HIV have said that they have feelings like they are some kind of criminal. The removal of that label is still being waited for.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 In 2015, the Supreme Court ruled over two cases in which the criminal liability of the accused was brought into question. In both cases, the accused had had unprotected sex without disclosing their HIV status. In both cases, the accused was taking HIV medication and did not transmit the virus. Only one of these decisions was overturned, leaving many ambiguities over the status of HIV criminalization in Finland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n On September 15th<\/sup> 2021, the Finnish Supreme Court overturned a conviction of aggravated assault for an HIV positive individual who had not disclosed their status to their partner. The accused was on medication \u2013 and therefore could not transmit the virus to the partner. Does this mean that the \u2018gap\u2019 between the medical fact of un-transmissibility and the use of criminal law in \u2018controlling\u2019 HIV is closing? In order to find out about the significance of the decision and the state of HIV criminalizations in Finland, I spoke to two NGO experts in October 2021. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini Pasanen<\/strong> is the Executive Director of Positiiviset ry and has worked on HIV advocacy on Nordic and European levels. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teppo Heikkinen<\/strong> is a specialist at NGO Hivpoint and works with men who have sex with men. <\/p>\n\n\n\n J: What significance does the new Supreme Court decision have regarding the criminalization of HIV in Finland? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teppo: <\/strong>The interpretation of the Criminal Code is changing and of course we\u2019re pleased with that \u2013 how if you have an undetectable viral load and have treatment and if you don\u2019t disclose your status, then the consequences won\u2019t be as they were before \u2013 you might not end up in jail.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini:<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0The Supreme Court decision has been long-awaited \u2013 and it\u2019s good that we\u2019re finally getting some clarity on the matter because so far, it\u2019s all been very unclear.<\/em>\u00a0There are a few factors in this case that are of interest to us \u2013 that the ejaculation was onto a sheet, that there was intercourse only once \u2013 but what about if there had been more than one time, or what if the situation was somehow different?<\/em>\u00a0 J: And so, there are ambiguities left over \u2013 who has the say over these? Who can say what will happen?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini: <\/strong>Nobody!\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0It has been a cat-and-mouse game where the judicial system demands that doctors tell patients who have received a positive status that they may end up getting charged for non-disclosure \u2026 and then when doctors tell patients that this is the case, the judiciary appeals back to the fact that look, doctors have told patients \u2013 so there must be a problem here.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 J: What does the history of criminalizing HIV look like in Finland? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini: <\/strong>Everywhere in the world where the spreading of or exposing someone to HIV has been criminalized, the first person who has been charged has been an immigrant whose photo has ended up published in media. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n J: And this is the case in Finland too, right? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini: <\/strong>In Finland as well, yes. The fi<\/em>rst several whose pictures have been published in media have <\/em>been immigrants. And personally, I think it sets the thought of what\u2019s being done here. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n J: Criminal charges have fallen somewhat with the development of medication & kno<\/strong>wledge about HIV transmissions – from attempted manslaughter in the earlier 2000s to assault now. How do you see the relationship between scientific knowledge about HIV transmission and the law?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini: <\/strong>Well, I think that Finland is very behind on this. I don\u2019t understand how we can have a judicial system that doesn\u2019t believe in scientific research. That\u2019s neatly what this is about.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 Teppo:<\/strong> But at the same time, doctors have also given out fair statements during criminal cases \u2013 saying that HIV is not transmissible if the viral loads aren\u2019t at measurable levels \u2013 so they\u2019ve been in a central role, in a way, in pushing for change in this legal practice. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n J: I\u2019ve heard that in the 2000s the police were still tracking HIV cases in criminal cases and that NGOs have asked why the cops have been doing this and not health services?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teppo: \u2026 <\/strong>and then to think that media images [of people accused of spreading the virus] were just circulating publicly, and the knowledge that the police are doing this \u2026 so it has definitely impacted those who have been living with HIV.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0 Sini<\/strong>: This is still going on \u2013 and has been going on very recently \u2013 it has not been long at all since the police have last been doing this. Unfortunately, they\u2019ve thought because of the law that this is the correct thing to do. <\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n J: How can this be happening, how is this in the hands of the police and not healthcare workers? <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sini:\u00a0 <\/strong>Exactly .. good question.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s criminal law that enables this. But no expert on this agrees that it should be the police who track these cases but healthcare workers.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0And we have cases where someone has told somebody that they have the virus, and this happened recently \u2013 and this partner went to the police and not even to take an HIV test first \u2013 but rather to the police to go and report them. Just last year.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n J: What challenges lie ahead in NGO work related to HIV criminalizations, and what other images of criminality or realities are you tackling in your work?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Teppo: <\/strong>When I follow press announcements related to HIV, it\u2019s regrettable how people living with HIV are still portrayed. On World Aids Day it\u2019s a bit different and more appropriate, but otherwise, in Finnish and international news there\u2019s still this negative image, one about the \u2018dangerousness\u2019 of people living with HIV.\u00a0<\/em> Sini: <\/strong>HIV infection and stigma related to HIV intersects with other marginal groups strongly \u2013 those who use drugs, those in sex work, sexual and gender minorities. Intersectional stigma comes about from this and is experienced \u2013 people are criminalized from several different angles \u2013 drug use is criminalized, and while sex work isn\u2019t criminalized directly, there are traits present related to buying and selling sex that might prevent people from accessing help.\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n We can\u2019t say that HIV is just a chronic illness \u2013 today, it\u2019s more of a social illness than a chronic one defining people\u2019s lives.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n References:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n HIV-Nordic (2014) Annual reports. http:\/\/hiv-norden.org\/documents.html<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n GNP+ (2010) The Global Criminalisation Scan Report 2010. https:\/\/www.hivpolicy.org\/Library\/HPP001825.pdf<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Interview and text by Juulia Kela. The use of Finnish criminal law to prosecute the transmission, exposure, or non-disclosure (not telling sexual partners about your positive HIV status) of HIV is an ongoing, understudied field of criminalization. Along with Sweden, Norway and Denmark, Finland is one of the six countries with the highest rates of … Continue reading The persistence of HIV criminalization in Finland: an interview with two experts.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-318","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hiv-aids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":319,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318\/revisions\/319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www2.hu-berlin.de\/crimscapes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Of course, the label of criminal is not what the case really is, but rather, it lives in people\u2019s perceptions: people don\u2019t know how they can have sex, whether it\u2019s enough that you\u2019ve told someone \u2013 because who will prove whether you have or haven\u2019t? It has really been the greatest burden, this question of criminality and the lack of certainty over the matter that has bothered people.\u00a0<\/em>
And the fact is that people living with HIV are regular people who haven\u2019t been in contact with criminal law before, and then, all of a sudden, they\u2019re told that if they have sex they can be charged under criminal law.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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And then there\u2019s still the question of an HIV positive individual who is not on medication \u2013 or has, for some reason \u2013 there are a few rare cases where the viral load does not drop to undetectable levels despite medication \u2013 we can\u2019t let it be assumed that they are somehow criminal.<\/em>\u00a0
But still, this doesn\u2019t stop anyone from going to make a report to the police. The fact is that the transmission and exposure of HIV is under criminal law \u2013 and how we interpret this law is not explicit in criminal law itself. This also means we don\u2019t have a specific part of the law to change. So, to an extent, we\u2019re still having to work with people\u2019s images and perceptions.\u00a0<\/em>
But the Supreme Court decision is still very welcome and gives us at least some clarity. Still, I don\u2019t personally think that the job here is done, and that we can all lay back now because everything is clear and there is no problem \u2013 this is not the situation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s totally fair that doctors tell their patients that they may end up in court \u2013 but then the judiciary ends up interpreting that as doctors tell their patients this, the people who end up in court must be guilty.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 the entire scientific community is behind the fact that HIV doesn\u2019t spread if you\u2019re on medication \u2013 and yet we haven\u2019t seen this fact being taken into account in criminal cases in Finland.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0
And it\u2019s very strange and problematic that we have closed trials in Finland. The trials around the transmission of and exposure to HIV are closed and secret. We don\u2019t know what they talk about in there. It\u2019s difficult to go and change anything when we don\u2019t even know what they\u2019ve been discussing.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2026 and it must have been terrifying and worrying about what kinds of processes you might end up being caught in even if you had acted \u2018responsibly\u2019 and been protected.<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maybe around five years ago in Joensuu \u2013 someone had spat at a police officer, which is of course rude \u2013 but it was reported that the officer had immediately taken an HIV test. So, around five years ago it obviously still wasn\u2019t clear to the police that spitting isn\u2019t a way to contract the virus. So this knowledge, when it comes to groups other than healthcare professionals and HIV specialists \u2026 is still quite bad.<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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