Positive Justice Project
Founded in 2010, the Positive Justice Project (PJP) is a national campaign working to end the criminalization of HIV and other stigmatized health conditions. PJP collaborates with coalitions, organizations, and individuals to build legal and policy strategies shaped by the needs of the people and communities most impacted by criminalization.
PJP is guided by a framework that seeks to go beyond repealing and reforming laws and policies that criminalize people for living with stigmatized health conditions and expand possibilities for a reality in which people thrive. Today we are engaging more partners than ever in this work that is firmly rooted in a Black feminist, harm reductionist, abolitionist politic.
How PJP works with community
An evolving practice
Our Guiding Principles inform PJP’s internal decision-making, assist in training and supporting national and local decision-makers and advocates, inform coalition strategy, promote accountability inside and outside of PJP, and publicly communicate PJP’s commitments. First developed in 2015 and updated in 2025, the Guiding Principles reflect PJP’s evolving philosophy and practice and describe the Black feminist, harm reductionist, and abolitionist framework that motivates PJP’s decriminalization work.
Data in support of advocacy
Our signature HIV criminalization resources make sure that advocates working in states across the country have access to accurate, comprehensive information about laws and policies. We are in a critical period facing an onslaught of threats to public health and the ability to have clear, fact-based information on HIV criminalization is more important than ever.
Strategic advocacy disrupting criminalization
The PJP Partners Group brings together advocates and organizations to share updates, resources, and strategies in the work to end HIV criminalization. It’s a vehicle for trusted and aligned partners to learn and engage with their peers, and build strategic advocacy responses to the needs on the ground guided by members’ past experiences, skills, expertise, and analysis.
Activating abolitionist frameworks
Abolitionist principles are taking root in the fight to end the criminalization of people living with HIV and other stigmatized health conditions. PJP’s work challenges systems of policing, punishment, and surveillance through the lens of HIV justice and advocacy. This Abolition for Our People webinar traces the intersections of HIV criminalization and abolition, shares lessons from coalition spaces that are applying these principles in real time, and reflects on what it means to center abolitionist values in decriminalization advocacy.
Advocacy rooted in racial justice
In advancing the fight to end HIV criminalization, coalition-based advocacy is essential for uplifting the experiences, knowledge, and needs of people most impacted by discriminatory laws and policies, especially Black and brown people. These webinars from CHLP highlight models for decriminalizing HIV that center Black voices and meaningfully involve Black experiences.
