South Africa considers new HIV laws

South Africa's Law Commission last week issued a series of recommendations on sexual offenses to top government leaders, including a proposed law that would classify the nondisclosure to a sex partner of being infected with HIV/AIDS as rape, Agence France-Presse reports. "Intentional nondisclosure by a person that he or she is infected by a life-threatening sexually transmissible infection...prior to sexual relations with another consenting person would constitute rape," the commission said in a statement. Joan van Niekerk, who led the commission's team that drafted the recommendations, said the group also broadened the definition of rape so that men could be considered rape victims if their sex partners do not disclose that they are infected with HIV. There was no report as to if or when government officials would act on the recommendations.