HIV BASIC Consensus Statement calls for stronger health data safeguards and a coordinated effort to separate public health from policing and criminalization
(July 8, 2026) – Today, the HIV Bodily Autonomy, Surveillance, and Informed Consent (HIV BASIC) Collective announced the publication of The Consensus Statement on HIV BASIC, endorsed by more than 150 organizations and 180 individuals. More than a statement, it is a community-led declaration created by people most directly affected by HIV criminalization, surveillance, coercive public health practices, and the misuse of health data. It demonstrates the collective force of communities speaking for themselves—and the power of solutions rooted in justice, dignity, and lived experience.
Endorsers include advocates, people living with HIV (PLHIV), LGBTQ+ rights champions, researchers, public health experts, and movement leaders across the United States and around the world. This broad show of support reflects growing concern about the erosion of health data privacy, expanding government surveillance, and the continued criminalization of PLHIV and other marginalized communities.
The Consensus Statement on HIV BASIC demands public health action to protect criminalized and marginalized communities. It establishes a shared framework for an HIV response rooted in bodily autonomy, informed consent, robust data protections, freedom from policing and criminalization, and, most importantly, not just the meaningful involvement, but the leadership of people living with HIV (MIPA).
Read the Consensus Statement on HIV BASIC.
Launched in March 2026 by Michael Scarce and Melanie Reese, CHLP, Positive Women’s Network-USA, The Sero Project, Transgender Law Center, and HIV Justice Network, the HIV BASIC initiative brings together people living with HIV, abolitionists, legal advocates, and organizers engaged and determined to address the longstanding issues at the intersection of health data collection, surveillance, and criminalization.
The Consensus Statement provides a set of foundational principles and a guiding resource for rebuilding public health infrastructure amid authoritarian attacks dismantling public health, neocolonial threats to international aid, the weaponization of health information in attacks on transgender people, and the enduring threat of HIV criminal arrests and prosecutions. It calls for greater involvement of people living with HIV in health policymaking, meaningful limits on data collection, stronger informed consent standards, and a commitment from public health officials to reject criminalization.
On Monday, August 10 at 3pm ET, the HIV BASIC Collective will host the first in a webinar series designed to build solidarity across movements and issues. The 90-minute webinar will explore the next steps for building collective power grounded in bodily autonomy, informed consent, and freedom from state violence.
Building on the momentum generated by its Consensus Statement, the HIV BASIC Collective will educate advocates, networks, and coalitions about the growing threats to health data privacy and bodily autonomy, while partnering with health departments and community organizations to confront the legacy and continuing role of public health systems in facilitating criminalization.
“It’s exceedingly clear this new coalition-building initiative has resonated deeply with comrades and allies far and wide,” said Michael Scarce, HIV positive writer, researcher, and activist. “Involvement of people living with HIV is not enough. Having a seat at the table is not enough. HIV BASIC reflects the urgent need for people living with HIV not merely to participate in this work, but to drive it and lead it. I’m re-energized by the excitement being generated by our statement, and our HIV BASIC webinar series is a perfect way to kick things off on the heels of our Consensus Statement.”
“Hundreds of organizations and individuals signed on in alignment with the HIV BASIC Collective’s grounding principles: MIPA, bodily autonomy, informed consent, and freedom from policing and criminalization. PWN is forever grateful to the movement mothers who nourished and tended the ground we are growing from,” said Marnina Miller and Evany Turk, co-Executive Directors of PWN-USA. “With the HIV BASIC Collective, we continue the transformative and collective task of abolishing oppressive systems and building the liberatory and unapologetically pro-Black, pro-immigrant, and pro-trans healthcare system that people living with HIV and our communities deserve. We will continue to demand care without coercion, safety without surveillance, and healthcare that honors our full humanity.”
“As attacks on bodily autonomy escalate and the federal regime embraces state violence and dehumanization as weapons to target our people, the Consensus Statement on HIV BASIC proves that our movements will not let this stand,” said Amir Sadeghi, Policy and Advocacy Manager with CHLP. “Criminalization, healthcare cuts, and the collapse of harm reduction policies are intensifying anti-Black and anti-trans violence, further undermining the already fragile trust our communities place in public health,” Sadgehi continued. “The broad support for HIV BASIC shows that advocates are ready to support public health leaders who meet this moment with meaningful action, and build the collective power needed to hold complacent officials accountable when they do not.”
“While the HIV BASIC Consensus Statement emerged from the U.S. context, its principles have global relevance,” said Edwin Bernard, Executive Director of HIV Justice Network. “Across many countries, people living with HIV are confronting criminalisation, intrusive surveillance, and inadequate protections for sensitive health information. The HIV Justice Network supports this statement because it articulates a shared vision of HIV justice rooted in bodily autonomy, informed consent, privacy, meaningful involvement of people living with HIV, and freedom from state control. These are not only human rights imperatives; they are prerequisites for a trusted and effective public health response.”
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