Exploring The Experiences of Violence against Women living with HIV in the Context of HIV Non-Disclosure Criminalization in Canada

Abstract

An extensive body of knowledge points to the intersection of violence against women and HIV as it is well-established that violence is ubiquitous in the lives of women living with HIV. Experiences of violence exist within a socio-legal context that criminalizes HIV non-disclosure. In Canada, the federal law requires people living with HIV to disclose their HIV positive status before a sexual encounter with a partner that may pose, according to the Supreme Court of Canada, a “realistic possibility of transmission.” The criminalization of HIV non-disclosure carries particularly negative consequences for women living with HIV. This thesis includes an analysis of data from the Women, ART, and the Criminalization of HIV (WATCH) Study, a qualitative, arts-based research study on the impact of the HIV non-disclosure law on women living with HIV in Canada. Grounded in an intersectional feminist framework, this thesis presents findings from the narrative and visual data collected from the three Ontario workshops in the WATCH study. This thesis explores how women living with HIV visually and narratively express and describe their experiences of violence in the context of the criminalization of HIV non-disclosure. The stories and artwork shared by participants demonstrate how the law used to criminalize HIV non-disclosure creates and exacerbates experiences of interpersonal and structural violence and surveillance in the lives of women living with HIV. This thesis offers important insights for reconceptualising violence against women living with HIV from a structural lens. This project demonstrates how violence stems from legal institutions that do not respond to the needs of women, and instead, further exacerbate marginalization, violence, and surveillance in the lives of women living with HIV.