CHLP Executive Director Catherine Hanssens to be Honored with Lifetime Achievement Award (2014)
Catherine Hanssens, founder and executive director of The Center for HIV Law and Policy (CHLP) has been selected by SMART (Sisterhood Mobilized for AIDS/HIV Research & Treatment) as the 2014 recipient of the John Falkenberg Lifetime Achievement Award. The award acknowledges extraordinary individuals who have dedicated their work to improving the health and lives of others by fighting for human rights and social justice.
"We are deeply honored to give Catherine this award in John Falkenberg's name and I know that he would be pleased as well”, says Susan Rodriguez, Founding Director of SMART. “Catherine has been a true champion for people living with HIV/AIDS. Catherine has been an unwavering activist and advocate for human rights and dignity for all people even in the face of adversity."
As director of CHLP, the first national legal resource and strategy center for people with HIV and their advocates, Hanssens has drawn national attention to HIV criminalization – the use of criminal law to penalize people living with HIV for conduct that would be indisputably legal if they did not get tested or know their status.
She led the development and launch of the Positive Justice Project (PJP), a national coalition working to end stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV in the criminal justice system. PJP released the first national consensus statement against HIV criminalization, featuring more than 750 organizational and individual signatories. In response to HIV criminalization, the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) passed a resolution on HIV criminalization recommending federal review of HIV-specific laws, and proposed federal legislation – the HIV REPEAL Act – was introduced in Congress to provide incentives for states to explore repeal or reform of laws and practices.
Most recently, Hanssens co-authored a public policy report, A Roadmap for Change: Federal Policy Recommendations for Addressing the Criminalization of LGBT People and People with HIV, drawing critical intersectional connections between discrimination and criminalization based on sexual orientation, gender identity, immigration status and HIV status.
The John Falkenberg Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented at SMART's Graduation Ceremony on June 18 at SCAN LaGuardia Memorial House on 307 East 116th Street, New York, New York.
SMART was founded in 1998 by women who met in East Harlem, New York to gain knowledge about what it means to be women living with HIV/AIDS. Its mission is to improve the quality of life for participants through a gender-specific educational model providing a holistic approach to treatment and health education for women and adolescents.
The Center for HIV Law and Policy is a national legal and policy resource and strategy center for people living with HIV and their advocates. CHLP’s mission is to reduce HIV’s impact on vulnerable and marginalized communities by securing the human rights of people affected by HIV.
SMART is a project of the Fund for the City of New York, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Contributions are greatly appreciated and are tax-deductible to the maximum extent allowed by law. Make a donation in honor or in memory of someone, or for any special reason. Your secure, online donation will be made through NYCharities, which is approved by the NYC Better Business Bureau.