Not A Crime
By HIV Legal Network
Not A CrimeMar 28, 2024
Best and Promising Practices from Low-Barrier, Harm Reduction Shelters in Canada
On today’s episode, we examine how some shelters and transition houses across Canada are responding to these urgent needs of women and gender-diverse people by adopting harm reduction philosophies and practices to ensure that they are meaningfully accessible to all women and gender-diverse people fleeing violence.
First, HIV Legal Network Co-Executive Director Sandra Ka Hon Chu speaks with Policy Analyst Anne-Rachelle Boulanger about the findings in our new report. That report is called: Towards Access for All: Best and Promising Practices from Low-Barrier, Harm Reduction Shelters in Canada.
Following this conversation, you will hear Anne-Rachelle speak with Lady Laforet and Anastasia Adams from the Welcome Centre Shelter for Women & Families located in Windsor, Ontario. The Welcome Centre is one of several shelters in Canada that is leading the way on incorporating harm reduction practices and ensuring that women and gender-diverse people who use drugs have equitable access to services.
To learn more, check out the report referenced in this episode:
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Special Episode - New laws already being used against LGBT individuals in Russia
We are following up on our January episode with new details on the consequences of the November 30, 2023, Russian Supreme Court decision that declared that the “international LGBT movement” is an “extremist organization.”
In today’s episode, HIV Legal Network Senior Policy Analyst Mikhail Golichenko speaks with Vasili, a human rights advocate and former law enforcement officer in Russia, to get his perspective on how this law is already being used against LGBT individuals in Russia, and what this tells us about the potential for future prosecutions.
Special Episode - LGBTQ+ Rights in Russia
HIV Legal Network Senior Policy Analyst Mikhail Golichenko speaks with Kseniya Kirichenko, a Russian human rights lawyer with a long experience of litigation in advocacy in support of LGBTQ+ people, about what a November 30 decision by the Russian Supreme Court that declared the “international LGBT movement” as an “extremist organization” means for LGBTQ+ people living in Russia and abroad.
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Episode Three - Criminalization in Canada, Eastern Europe and Central Asia
In our final episode this season, India and Misha talk about stories of criminalization in both EECA and Canada, looking at how unjust laws target people from vulnerable populations, what impact this can have on their lives, and how we can create a fairer, more equitable world for all.
Episode 2 - The criminalization of people who use drugs in Russia and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region
In the second episode of Not a Crime, HIV Legal Network policy analyst India Annamanthadoo and senior policy analyst Mikhail Golichenko continue their conversation about policies that criminalize people who use drugs in Russia and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Find out how repressive laws and policies in the region undermine human rights and how advocates there and around the world are mobilizing for change.
Episode 1 - HIV Criminalization in Russia and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region
In the premiere English language episode, HIV Legal Network policy analyst India Annamanthadoo talks to senior policy analyst Mikhail Golichenko about HIV criminalization in Russia and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Hear about human rights in the region and how the laws governing HIV non-disclosure put people living with HIV at risk.
Introducing Not a Crime
HIV Legal Network Co-Executive Director Janet Butler-McPhee welcomes you to our new podcast series Not a Crime.
Featuring interviews with our policy analysts along with people working farther afield, Not a Crime will highlight the impact of criminalization on people living with HIV and people who use drugs over the coming months.
In the premiere English language episode, HIV Legal Network policy analyst India Annamanthadoo talks to senior policy analyst Mikhail Golichenko about drug policy in Russia and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Learn more about how repressive laws and policies in the region frustrate the response to HIV and undermine the human rights of people who use drugs, and how advocates there and around the world are mobilizing for change.
The first French episode, available at Featuring interviews with our policy analysts along with people working farther afield, Not a Crime will highlight the impact of criminalization on people living with HIV and people who use drugs over the coming months.
In today’s premiere English language episode, HIV Legal Network policy analyst India Annamanthadoo talks to senior policy analyst Mikhail Golichenko about drug policy in Russia and the Eastern Europe and Central Asia region. Learn more about how repressive laws and policies in the region frustrate the response to HIV and undermine the human rights of people who use drugs, and how advocates there and around the world are mobilizing for change.
Our first French episode, available at anchor.fm/reseaujuridiquevih, features HIV Legal Network senior policy analyst Cécile Kazatchkine in conversation with Modeste Mambo Amisi, epidemiologist and executive director of HODSAS, about how he came to be an activist for HIV and human rights and how the laws in the Democratic Republic of Congo affect non-disclosure.
Stay tuned for future English episodes as we delve deeper into HIV criminalization to examine how criminal laws target communities at the margin, while our next French episode takes us to Morocco for a conversation with Moulay Ahmed Douraidi, a well-known activist, about HIV non-disclosure in a country that doesn’t have specific laws governing disclosure and how people living with HIV are targeted all the same.