The government listed HIV/AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease, the intentional transmission of which to another partner was now punishable by law.
The Criminal Laws (Protection of Children and Young People) Amendment currently before Parliament includes a provision listing HIV/AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease, the intentional transmission of which can be made a criminal offence.
Other punishable STDs include syphilis, gonorrhea, and herpes, among others.
Another goal of the Criminal Laws (Protection of Children and Young People) Amendment Bill is to raise the age of sexual consent from 16 to 18 years.
Clause 8 of the bill stipulates that the law decriminalizing the intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS remains in place after the Marriage Act repealed Section 79 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act which sought to impose severe and long-term imprisonment on those convicted of the crime. . Intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS.
“Intentionally infecting persons with sexually transmitted diseases was originally dealt with in two sections of the Criminal Law Act. Section 78 makes it an offense for a person to intentionally infect another person with a sexually transmitted disease other than HIV; Section 79 makes the same provision for those who They infect others with HIV, but it carries a much harsher penalty. “Section 79 was repealed by the Marriage Act in 2022, meaning it is no longer an offense for it to be an offense for other people to become infected with HIV (because Section 78 excludes HIV Humanity specifically),” reads Section 8 of the draft law.
“This section would amend section 78 of the Act to include HIV among the sexually transmitted diseases covered by this section.”
In 2022, the government decriminalized the intentional transmission of HIV to a partner through marriage law when it repealed a legal provision that had criminalized it, as the Second Republic sought to move with international trends.
The repealed section provides for 20 years’ imprisonment for anyone convicted of intentional transmission of HIV/AIDS, while Section 78 of the Criminal Code, which now includes HIV/AIDS as a sexually transmitted disease, provides for a fine equivalent to level 14. Or five years in criminal law. Imprisonment or both.
Section 78 of the Criminal Code (Codification and Reform Act) states: “(2) Any person who (a) knows that he or she is suffering from a sexually transmitted disease; or (b) is aware that there is a real risk or possibility that he or she is suffering from a sexually transmitted disease; Transmitted by sexual intercourse; intentionally infecting any other person with the disease, or doing anything or causing or permitting anything to be done with the intention or awareness that there is a real risk or possibility of transmitting the infection to any other person infected with the disease, is guilty of intentionally transmitting the infection to that person the other with a sexually transmitted disease and is liable to a fine up to or exceeding the fourteenth level or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or both.
Recently, President Mnangagwa used his powers under the Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) Act to publish Legal Instrument No. 2 of 2024, in compliance with a Constitutional Court ruling that declared a section of the law setting the age of sexual consent at 16 to be unconstitutional.
The legal instrument relied upon by the President raised the age of consent for sexual relations to 18 years, consistent with the Constitution, which sets the minimum age for marriage at 18 years and defines all young people as under 18 years of age, whereas the original law defined them as below 16 years of age. Protection is withdrawn from the ages of 17 and 18 years.
Presidential powers have a duration of only six months, during which Parliament must pass a substantive law if the measure is to be made permanent. Announce
