The story of Samuel and Stella Malunga* is one of love and forgiveness in a time of HIV and AIDS. They met and fell in love while studying law at a university in neighbouring South Africa. Samuel graduated two years before Stella and returned to Zimbabwe but kept their relationship going until she was able to join him in 2000.

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are looking at a new way of preventing HIV infections: criminal charges. But experts argue that applying criminal law to HIV transmission will achieve neither criminal justice nor curb the spread of the virus; rather, it will increase discrimination against people living with HIV, and undermine public health and human rights.

The party at a popular restaurant in Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, looks ordinary, but the people attending it - all of whom are HIV-positive - are enjoying a rare opportunity to socialise without feeling like an outsider. The young men and women spent the afternoon relaxing and getting to know each other; by the end of the evening new friends had been made, phone numbers exchanged and there were plans to meet again.

Sixty years after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and on the 20th anniversary of World AIDS Day, people living with HIV in Mozambique are still experiencing frequent human rights abuses. "There are signs that many people have been the victims of violence, or even lost their lives, for having gone public about their HIV-positive status," said Alice Mabote, president of the Mozambican League of Human Rights.

When Mariana Uchandidhora's husband was killed in a traffic accident in South Africa a year ago, tradition required that she have sex with her deceased husband's brother in order to be purified. Uchandidhora, 36, refused, arguing that her brother-in-law was much younger than she was, but the family found an older man from outside the family to carry out the ritual, known as "khupita khufa". Two months later she discovered that she was both pregnant and HIV-positive.