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Non-disclosure equals rape, says law commission

People who fail to inform their lovers that they are infected with a life-threatening sexually-transmissible disease should be guilty of rape, says the South African Law Commission (SALC).

The SALC made this and other recommendations in its report on the law relating to sexual offences, which was released in Pretoria on Tuesday.

HIV/AIDS lobby group, the AIDS Law Project (ALP) is critical of the SALC’s recommendation on non-disclosure.

"As it stands, the SALC recommendations relating to sexual offences and HIV/AIDS are still not clear," the ALP’s Liesl Gerntholtz told the UN news service PlusNews on Wednesday.


This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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