With almost 200 known HIV criminalisation cases in the central Asian republic, progress was made towards HIV decriminalisation in Tajikistan when the recent Plenum of the Supreme Court marked the first step in this important process in January 2024. One of the most significant changes was the recognition of the fact of “placing people at risk of HIV” was an unproven basis for criminal prosecution.
In Feburary 2024, the CEDAW committee also recommended that Tajikistan remove it’s HIV-specific criminal law, following a shadow report from HJWW coalition member, Eurasian Women’s Network on AIDS, who have painstakingly documented that marginalised groups bear the brunt of the implementation of the HIV criminalisation law in Tajikistan; starting in 2014, authorities have regularly targeted sex workers and LGBT people, often under the guise of disease prevention.