CAAN Communities, Alliances and Networks is a national organization that provides a forum for Indigenous peoples across Canada to holistically address health issues, with a particular focus on HIV, hepatitis C (HCV), sexually transmitted blood-borne infections (STBBIs), and tuberculosis (TB). CAAN produces culturally relevant resources to assist and empower Indigenous peoples in preventing infectious disease, which CAAN strives to address within an Indigenous context — recognizing that Indigenous peoples in Canada do not hold monolithic beliefs or positions. This means approaching these questions by respecting our differences and accentuating our unity and strength in a spirit of wholeness, healing, and cultural safety.
In light of CAAN’s mission to promote a “social determinants of health” framework, its policy positions touch on issues that are closely linked to the transmission of HIV, HCV, and STBBIs among Indigenous people, and the ways in which prevention, testing, treatment, care, and support services are made available and accessible in Indigenous communities. Moreover, CAAN believes strongly in the power and significance of the Calls for Action released by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2015, and of the Calls for Justice released following the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) in 2019, to stimulate meaningful change for Indigenous peoples living in Canada. CAAN’s mandate is also closely linked to the 24 preambular paragraphs and 46 substantive articles of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UN Declaration).
The HIV Legal Network (“Legal Network”) is one of the world’s leading organizations tackling legal and human rights issues related to HIV, and works to defend the rights of people living with HIV, as well as communities disproportionately affected by HIV, including gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men (GBMSM), people who use drugs, sex workers, persons who are incarcerated, and Indigenous peoples. Crucially, the Legal Network strives to employ an intersectional lens by analyzing how multiple identities and compounding determinants of health can affect individuals when it comes to laws and policies relating to HIV, HCV, and STBBIs.
In 2022, the Legal Network recommitted to the important work of reconciliation in its latest strategic plan (Rights Within Reach) for 2022–2027, pledging to centre Indigenous perspectives in its work. In addition, the Legal Network strives to increase its understanding of how Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by HIV, punitive laws and policies, and criminalization (in all its forms) and to develop resources to honour the Calls to Action of the TRC and the Calls for Justice of the MMIWG Inquiry.
