Belizean LGBT Rights Violations

Posted on The Reporter site on 29th April,2011 Posted on this blog: 25th June, 2011 I always love when newspapers misrepresent the facts, but like all things, free speech is free speech. See below the editorial from the reporter: It has to be clear to all that the campaign by unibam to gain legal recognition for homosexuals and lesbians  is  being sponsored by funding from abroad! U nibam has retained the services of two attorneys from abroad who are Queen’s Counsels, and the leader of unibam has admitted that he getting support from the gay organization known as the Human Dignity Trust. Unibam also claims it has the support of the Belize AIDS Commission, which is a government-appointed  civil   body established to  reduce the prevalence  of AIDS in Belize. Some of the people serving on this Commission appear to be sympathetic to unibam ’s cause, though there has been no official pronouncement on this subject. A spokesperson for the ...

Posted on blog: 25th, June, 2011 Posted on the Amandala websited:  10th June,2011   Dear Editor,    To understand the enormity of what Caleb Orosco is asking our Supreme Court to do, you have to know the features of the Belize Constitution, especially its Preamble and its chapter on individual rights and freedoms.   Our Constitution is not unique in admitting the existence of God, but it does so in a simple direct way, giving evidence of the genius of the men who framed it. In paragraph (a) it says that our nation is founded upon principles which acknowledge the supremacy of God.   Paragraph (b) tells Belizeans that we are not just a conglomeration of individuals, but a society which must work for the common good.    Paragraph (c) proclaims that the will of the people is the basis of governance in Belize.    One could have thought that after mentioning those powerful foundational principles contained in (a), (b) and (c) the framers ...

June 25th, 2011 The case has inspired the LGBT community to organize itself as a strategy group. This to me is cool and so in my mind they will be primarily handling the Public Relations issues of the case. I have committed to staying out of their way to allow for spokespersons to step up. While this is happening Civil Society has also organized themselves to conduct research, issue a statement etc. It is clear from my analysis that parts of the media is bias in not allowing for a health discourse. Plus TV has shut down any healthy discussion in out case and sought to misrepresent the facts. The press release in this case have followed a similiar line. Here are some things that have happen so far with my religious opponents. 1).Say we are going after the children and demanding New Rights. 2).Our case threatens the fundamental right of the churches to practice their own belief. 3).We will use sexual health education to promote homosexual acts. 4).We raise rats to have sex. 5)....

Written: June 25th, 2011 While Eric Castellanos was making waves in the political declaration, I was dialoguing with the representatives from AIDS FreeWorld. They eventually committed to support the regional effort to advance our section 53. Mauirce Tomlinson must be acknowledged for facilitating that meeting. He reminded me that I have a responsibility to the region to ensure that we win for our action has strong regional implications. He reminded me that i know longer represent just Belize, but all the hopes of LGBT populations in the region in their concerns to address stigma and discrimination.  Eric and I also had the chance to chat with the Health Minister of Belize at the Belize Mission in New York. I suppose all politicians like feedback to see how they are doing, in this case it was HIV/AIDS. We were surprisingly politically correct, but didnt mince words either. Eric shared his concerns about the lack of access to viral load testing and i shared my concerns a...

 Written: June 25th, 2011 The United Nations Special Session on HIV meeting was held between the 8th and 10th of June. What I learnt from that expereince was how CARICOM habits differ from its statements. I had attended a Breakfast meeting with the 60 delegates from the region, a presentation was made, but only two persons made any statement from the audience. I made the comment that all across the region our constitution and our human rights committment was being replaced by biblical langauge and call for a stronger effort to ensuring that human rights language was seen in the Political Declaration while Javeion Nelson spoke to the sovereignity clause. Before arriving in New York, I found out that the CARICOM negotiator was voting with the Holy See on positions that was not in the interest of marginalize groups. Concerns issued over the Final Political declaration can be quoted in the following ways from Latin American American Civil Society Analysis: "There is evid...

AG/RES. 2653 (XLI-O/11) HUMAN RIGHTS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, AND GENDER IDENTITY (Adopted at the fourth plenary session, held on June 7, 2011) THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY, TAKING INTO ACCOUNT resolutions AG/RES. 2435 (XXXVIII-O/08), AG/RES. 2504 (XXXIX-O/09), and AG/RES. 2600 (XL-O/10), “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity”;  REITERATING:  That the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in that instrument, without distinction of any kind, such as race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth, or other status; and That the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man establishes that every human being has the right to life, liberty, and the security of his person without distinction as to ra...

DECLARATION OF THE COALICION OF LESBIANS, GAYS, BISEXUALS, TRAVESTI, TRANSEXUALS, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE OAS. SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR, JUNE 5TH, 2011  Mister Secretary General, Ministers, Members of the Official Delegations, Civil Society  Representatives,  We, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Travesti, Transsexual, Transgender and Intersex organizations, convened in San Salvador, El Salvador on June 2 and 3, 2011, in accordance with the directives established by the General Assembly of the OAS in its resolutions AG/RES.2092(XXXVO/05); CP/RES.759(1217/99); AG/RES.840(1361/03); AG/RES.1707(XXX-O/00) and AG/RES.1915(XXXIII-O/03), which determine a regulatory framework to enhance and strengthen civil society participation in OAS activities and in the Summit of the Americas process We fully share the concern for ensuring that citizen security must concretely constitute the basis...

Through facebook at a meeting in El Salvador for the OAS, I learnt that the there was a motorcade of 20 cars, with signs etc against homosexuality and UniBAM. This was captured on Channel 7 news with the following: Amin Hegar, Aspirant for Std. Bearer "I don't care who supports other candidates. All I care is that the people of Belmopan care about me and care about their future - the one Christian person who believes in God and that is most important." Jules Vasquez "We know that Ms. Shoman have filed some papers on behalf of UNIBAM. Has that been an issue in your campaign? Have you made it an issue?" Amin Hegar, Aspirant for Std. Bearer "That has not been an issue in my campaign, it has been an issue in Lisa's campaign to be frankly." Jules Vasquez "Have you exploited it?" Amin Hegar, Aspirant for Std. Bearer "I have never exploited that. The churches probably have. Yesterday we had the big protest that was against UNIBAM,...

DECLARATION OF THE COALICION OF LESBIANS, GAYS, BISEXUALS, TRAVESTI, TRANSEXUALS, TRANSGENDER AND INTERSEX OF THE AMERICAS BEFORE THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE OAS. SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADOR, JUNE 5TH, 2011 Mister Secretary General, Ministers, Members of the Official Delegations, Civil Society Representatives, We, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Travesti, Transsexual, Transgender and Intersex organizations, convened in San Salvador, El Salvador on June 2 and 3, 2011, in accordance with the directives established by the General Assembly of the OAS in its resolutions AG/RES.2092(XXXV-O/05); CP/RES.759(1217/99); AG/RES.840(1361/03); AG/RES.1707(XXX-O/00) and AG/RES.1915(XXXIII-O/03), which determine a regulatory framework to enhance and strengthen civil society participation in OAS activities and in the Summit of the Americas process We fully share the concern for ensuring that citizen security must concretely constitute the basis for full and sustainable development of human rights for ever...

THE COALITION OF LGBTTTI ORGANIZATIONS FROM 21 LATIN AMERICAN AND CARIBBEAN COUNTRIES WITNESSING THE APPROVAL OF THE FOURTH RESOLUTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS, SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY The Coalition of LGBTTTI Latin American and Caribbean organizations, formed by groups belonging to more than 20 countries expresses in this communiqué its assessment of the activities of the 41st General Assembly of the Organization of American States, which took place in San Salvador on June 5th-7th, 2011. This Assembly adopted the fourth resolution AG/RES.  2653 (XLI-O/11) “Human Rights, Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity”, showing the increasing attention to our situation and the need of encouraging member states to commit to taking action to fight human rights violations against our communities. The mentioned resolution, which is the result of the advocacy of the coalition, makes progress towards the realization of an hemispheric...

 A coalition of LGBT Caribbean Activists attempted to sensitize Caribbean Delegates about the human rights concerns in the Caribbean For the first time, as  part of a region wide strategy that builds support with the larger LAC regions as a whole, declaration on LGBTTI concerns. The Caribbean sought to distribute talking points to Caribbean leaders. Beyond that, our focus was to evaluate who CARICOM countries would vote for in Latin America for the Inter-American Human Rights Court.On top of this, a LGBT resolution that advance the political recognition that LGBT Human Rights . The third, is a resolution, that speaks to a convention on racism and intolerance. With that said this is the back ground. 1). No less than the Holy See Representative have been trying to railroad the resolution on sexual oreintation and gender identity, so we stayed and monitored the situation to ensure that there was not a vote to open the negotiations. 2). The Holy S...