@article{ref1,
title="Zimbabwe to criminalise the deliberate spreading of HIV",
journal="Pacific AIDS alert bulletin",
year="1996",
author="",
volume="",
number="12",
pages="15-15",
abstract="&quot;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,&quot; Zimbabwe's Justice Minister Emerson Mnangagwa told the Ziana news agency in May. &quot;This will also apply to marriages.&quot; 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. &quot;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.&quot; The legislation comes two years after activist groups started lobbying for stiffer sentences for rapists infected with HIV. &quot;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,&quot; said Priscilla Ndlovu of Zimbabwe's Women and AIDS Support Network.<p /><p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="1018-2152",
doi="",
url="http://dx.doi.org/"
}