Submission
Chemsex and the law – improving the justice system’s response to drug-related sexual offences
The Victorian Law Reform Commission is currently conducting a review of Victoria’s laws relating to rape, sexual assault and associated adult and child sexual offences. The review will make recommendations to improve the justice system’s responses to sexual offences. The Commission will deliver its report to the Attorney General very soon.
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Research
On International Overdose Awareness Day, new research considers post-mortem rights
Each year, on the 31st of August, people around the world come together to mark International Overdose Awareness Day. Initiated in 2001 by Melburnian Sally J Finn, International Overdose Awareness Day is an opportunity to pause, grieve, memorialise lives lost, and to stimulate frank conversations about overdose and other drug-related harms and how to prevent them.
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Report
Towards a new Mental Health and Wellbeing Act – considerations for human rights
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System delivered its final report in February of this year, and it was tabled in Parliament in March. Among the matters the Commission was appointed to consider was the need to address the stigma associated with mental health, and the need to safeguard human rights.
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Research
#HepCantWait, but the legacy effect of stigma and discrimination ‘doesn’t just go away’
Since late 2019, COVID-19 has been the global health crisis absorbing much of our attention. Efforts to respond to it, including the redeployment of people and resources, have necessarily had impacts on other public health programs and pandemics. The World Health Organization’s ambitious goal to eliminate hepatitis C by 2030 is one program that has been slowed and, in some places, stopped in its tracks by COVID-19.
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News
The New South Wales Mandatory Disease Testing Act
The Mandatory Disease Testing Act 2021, recently passed through the New South Wales Parliament,establishes a new scheme under which a person can be ordered to provide a blood sample for the testing of blood-borne viruses if, as a result of their deliberate action, their bodily fluid has come into contact with a health, emergency or public sector worker.
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Presentation
Informed consent and upscaling hepatitis C testing – Presentation at the Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference
GLaD team member Emily Lenton recently presented a paper at the 12th Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference. Her presentation, titled ‘Hepatitis C testing and gaining informed consent: taking stock and innovating for the future’, was co-authored with the convenor of ARCSHS’ Gender, Law and Drugs program, Associate Professor Kate Seear.
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Announcement
Post-cure lives – now recruiting
Seeking participants for research on people’s lived experience of hepatitis C cure
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Part 2
Project update
Life after cure – preliminary findings from the post-cure project
What does life look like for people after they have cleared hepatitis C?
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Part 1
Project update
Life after cure – preliminary findings from the post-cure project
What does life look like for people after they have cleared hepatitis C? Do people whose blood shows no detectable amount of the hepatitis C virus need to inform their doctor or dentist about their previous hepatitis C status? What about prospective employers or insurance providers? Does hepatitis C–related stigma and discrimination remain a challenge for people post-cure? In what ways, and in what settings?
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Project update
Hepatitis C cure and ongoing challenges in post-cure lives
Australia is spending billions on the universal rollout of direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs) as part of its ambitious goal of achieving virtual elimination of hepatitis C by 2030. These ‘revolutionary’, ‘transformative’ drugs can bring about a sustained virological response – that is, a cure – for hepatitis C in over 90 percent of people treated. They are available on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme for all Australians who are covered by Medicare.
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Research
Hepatitis C from disability to cure – preliminary findings from ‘speculative legal mapping’
As Australia works towards its ambitious target of reducing hepatitis C stigma by 50% by 2022, it is necessary to investigate and understand the issues that continue to affect people who have – and have been treated for – hepatitis C. One significant example of such issues is the set of laws and policies devised in a pre-cure world that have yet to be reformed since the advent of curative treatments. Do people who had hepatitis C need to disclose this to insurers or prospective employers? And could you be refused employment or insurance on such a basis? Does the fact you once had hepatitis C need to be retained in your medical records? There are literally dozens of questions like these to be asked.
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Announcement
Welcome to GLaD
We are delighted to introduce you to a new research program at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS).
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New project
A world-first ‘post–human rights’ framework for drug policy
With new Australian drug laws required to comply with human rights frameworks, researchers at the GLaD program are conducting a new study funded by the Australian Research Countil to develop a world-first ‘post–human rights’ framework for drug policy.
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New project
Social research project on hepatitis C and post-cure lives
In Australia, a new generation of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for the treatment of hepatitis C have been rolled out in a globally unique program of unrestricted, nationwide access. The new drugs, heralded as ‘revolutionary’, bring about a sustained virological response to hepatitis C in over 90 percent of people treated. By the end of 2019, […]
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New article
Beyond a post-cure world
We are excited to announce the publication of the first article from the project, ‘Addressing hepatitis C-related legal, policy and practice discrimination in a post-cure world’.
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Interview
An interview with GLaD research lead Kate Seear
Australia has long been a leader in critical alcohol and other drug (AOD) scholarship. Much of this work draws on feminist theory, including feminist science studies, to identify and examine ideas about agency and materiality in drug policy and practice. Often, this work also prioritises issues specific to gender, such as how the law conceptualises links between drugs and family violence, or how it understands the relationship between alcohol and sexual assault.
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