Article 21 of the Saudi AIDS Prevention Law

This article lays down a general rule against discrimination toward persons living with the disease, which complements the specific guarantees in other articles.

What is prohibited? Any act or omission that combines two descriptions:

1. It constitutes discrimination against persons living with the disease.
2. It leads to one of three effects:
   • Degrading their dignity.
   • Or curtailing their rights.
   • Or exploiting them.

This must be because of their infection.

Scope of the prohibition:

• It covers acts, such as abuse or humiliating treatment.
• It covers omission, such as refusing to provide a service to a person because they are infected.
• The text does not name a particular actor, so the prohibition is general.

Relation to other articles: this article is a general rule alongside specific guarantees in the Law. It is connected to Article 20, which obliges the Ministry and the health bodies to encourage individuals to take voluntary tests, since protecting infected persons from discrimination helps with that. Article 22 also provides that the Saudi Health Council approves the persons nominated by the public health bodies to detect violations of the Law's provisions, including violation of this article.

This article does not itself specify a penalty for the violation; the penalty appears elsewhere in the Law.

A person who has been discriminated against because of their infection would be well advised to consult a lawyer who specializes in criminal cases.