CHLP’s Positive Justice Project Introduces New Guiding Principles to Inform and Inspire Decriminalization Work

Today, on World AIDS Day, the Positive Justice Project (PJP) is releasing its reimagined Guiding Principles. During the ongoing onslaught against our communities, these principles offer guidance for the movement to end HIV criminalization and construct systems of care and compassion for all people, especially those living with and deeply impacted by HIV.

First developed in 2015, the Guiding Principles have been reimagined to reflect PJP’s evolving philosophy and practice. Senior PJP Attorney Jada Hicks, Public Health and Advocacy Strategist Kytara Epps, and Staff Attorney Sean McCormick worked together to articulate the goals of the principles. “Our purpose in redrafting the principles was to ensure they match our evolution as an organization and our deepening commitment to abolitionist approaches,” said Hicks. “We want these principles to not only guide our work, but also encourage partners and advocates to embrace an abolitionist framework and hold all of us accountable to the values we share.”

The PJP team also collaborated with the PJP Partners Group to develop the language and discuss applications for the new principles.  

The reimagined principles describe the core values that guide PJP’s legal and policy support within the HIV decriminalization movement. The principles reject criminalization as an approach to HIV and other systemic challenges, denouncing any tactic that denies the bodily autonomy and dignity of people living with HIV and other stigmatized health conditions.

In addition to outlining PJP’s process of responding to the needs of local people with lived experience, they also articulate that PJP refuses to allow any person or organization to erase or silence the communities most impacted by criminalization.

“These principles serve as a north star,” stated Epps. “When working on strategies and legislation, people most impacted, such as sex workers, people who use drugs, or people living with viral hepatitis, are often excluded unintentionally in coalition processes or intentionally by legislators who see these groups as too ‘controversial.’ We want to reaffirm our commitment to protect all of our people from criminalization.”

The document also resoundingly rejects criminalization as a strategy to promote public health. The PJP team strives to develop compassionate public health approaches that center autonomy, dignity, and justice and humanize rather than stigmatize, marginalize, and oppress. “Abolition is more than dismantling systems that harm our well-being,” said McCormick. “It’s also about building collective care and transforming systems to provide every person the ability to shape their health and happiness.”

The PJP team will further explore and explain the new principles during the next installment of the Abolition for Our People series, Cultivating Positive Justice - Ending HIV criminalization through principled coalition-based advocacy on Thursday, December 4 at 1:00pm ET. They will be joined by local advocates who will offer both grounding and practical guidance for people committed to dismantling HIV criminalization and advancing collective liberation.

“World AIDS Day calls us to honor our history and recommit to the work ahead. In a moment when public health and marginalized communities are facing unprecedented attacks, the upcoming webinar will present these principles as our roadmap for ending HIV criminalization and strengthening the health of all people,” said Hicks.

The PJP team is especially grateful for the expert leadership and attention of consultant Shana Turner, who shepherded the reimagination of the principles, and the vital feedback provided by the PJP Partners Group.