{"id":3216,"date":"2019-11-11T17:43:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-11T17:43:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3216"},"modified":"2019-11-11T17:43:45","modified_gmt":"2019-11-11T17:43:45","slug":"%ef%bb%bflgbt-battles-govt-at-iachr-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/?p=3216","title":{"rendered":"\ufeffLGBT battles Gov\u2019t at IACHR today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u2022 Nov. 19 deadline for Govt. to respond to Tomlinson\u2019s same-sex marriage petition<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jamaica\u2019s\nanti-same-sex laws will today again be thrown into the international spotlight\nwhen the powerful Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IAHCR, which is an\narm of the Organization of American States, hears the petition brought by Aids\nFree World on behalf of two Jamaican LGBTQ petitioners alleging that Jamaica is\nin breach of the American Convention on Human Rights.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The petition challenges Jamaica\u2019s laws against sexual\nactivity between consenting same-sex partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing comes just weeks after Jamaica\u2019s appellate court\noverturned an interim injunction which had initially granted gay rights group,\nMontego Bay Pride, permission to rent public facilities at the Montego Bay\nCultural Centre for a forum on same-sex marriage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one instance, the petitioner, a transgender woman,\ncontends that she was stoned by an angry mob in her home in Jamaica, resulting\nin her being kicked out and forced to live on the streets at the age of 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She further contends that she was sexually assaulted, beaten\nand held hostage. She says she was denied access to an HIV test and other\nhealth services at a free public health clinic and subjected to hostile,\nunwelcoming treatment from healthcare workers. The woman is now said to be\nliving in the Netherlands.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the other case, which involves a gay man, he contends\nthat he was beaten, stoned and mobbed while in Jamaica. The man said every time\nhe went to the police station to report the attacks, the officers chased him\naway and blamed him for causing the abuse because he was \u201ctoo gay\u201d. He is now\nliving in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The contending parties are hoping that the hearing will be\nin their favour, as they believe a positive decision on the petitions from the\nIACHR would be welcome news for activists working in Jamaica and the Caribbean\nto end the criminalization of LGBTQ people that has resulted in stigma,\ndiscrimination, and violence (including murder), which continue to hamper the\nfight against HIV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SAME SEX MARRIAGE<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Jamaican authorities\u2019 legal battle with\nMontego Bay gay rights activist, Maurice Tomlinson, seems far from over as the\nJamaican government is expected to respond by November 19 to a challenge to its\nlaw against same-sex marriage, mounted by Tomlinson, at the IACHR.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The challenge is to the country\u2019s constitutional ban on the\nlegal recognition of any form of same-sex unions, including marriage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights has held that the\nAmerican Convention on Human Rights, to which Jamaica is a signatory,\nguarantees the right to same-sex marriage. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jamaica\u2019s anti-same-sex laws will today again be thrown into the international spotlight when the powerful Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, IAHCR, which is an arm of the Organization of American States, hears the petition brought by Aids Free World on behalf of two Jamaican LGBTQ petitioners alleging that Jamaica is in breach of the American Convention on Human Rights.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3217,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1623,1624,1622,915,917,1518,919,1526,1626,207,30],"class_list":["post-3216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-iachr","tag-inter-american-commission-on-human-rights","tag-lgbt","tag-lgbtq","tag-maurice-tomlinson","tag-montego-bay-cultural-centre","tag-montego-bay-pride","tag-same-sex","tag-same-sex-marriage","tag-st-james-municipal-corporation","tag-western-jamaica"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3218,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3216\/revisions\/3218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/westernmirror.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}