Jamaica: Police Violence Fuels AIDS Epidemic
Human
Rights Watch, November 16, 2004
http://www.hrw.org/english/docs/2004/11/16/jamaic9669.htm
New York—Widespread violence and
discrimination against gay men and people living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica is
undermining government measures to combat the country’s fast-growing
epidemic, Human Rights Watch said in a new report
released today.
The 79-page report, “Hated
to Death: Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic,”
documents extensive police persecution of people suspected of homosexual
conduct, as well as sex workers and people living with HIV/AIDS. Gay men and
people living with HIV/AIDS face serious violence, and are often forced to
abandon their homes and communities. Health workers often provide them with
inadequate healthcare or deny them treatment altogether.
Many people in Jamaica still believe that HIV is
transmitted by air or casual contact. Widespread homophobia and discrimination
are effectively undermining the government response to HIV/AIDS, Human Rights
Watch said.
“Until Jamaica addresses the epidemic of homophobic
violence, it will have no hope against the epidemic of HIV/AIDS,” said
Rebecca Schleifer, researcher with Human Rights Watch’s HIV/AIDS Program and
author of the report. “If the Jamaican government is serious about fighting
the country’s AIDS epidemic, it should stop promoting brutality against gay
men and lesbians and start protecting them from abuse.”
Jamaica’s Ministry of Health has taken steps to combat
discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS or at risk of contracting
the virus. But discriminatory laws and state practices are undermining these
important efforts. Jamaica’s Victorian-era sodomy laws, which criminalize
consensual sex between adult men, are used to arrest “peer educators” who
provide HIV/AIDS information and condoms to other gay men.
Police extort money and sex from gay men as well as sex
workers, sometimes using the mere possession of condoms—a key tool in HIV
prevention—as an excuse to harass or arrest both them and the AIDS educators
who work with them. Discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS poses
serious barriers to obtaining necessary medical care and drives many from
seeking health services for themselves and their children.
An estimated 1.5 percent of Jamaican adults are living
with HIV/AIDS, the third largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS in
the Caribbean (after Haiti and the Dominican Republic). According to
government figures, the epidemic is on the increase. In June, Jamaica launched
an ambitious project to provide antiretroviral drugs to people living with
HIV/AIDS and to address underlying human rights violations that are driving
the epidemic.
“Jamaica’s ambitious HIV/AIDS programs are bound to
fail unless the government eliminates the discriminatory laws and abusive
practices that undermine its prevention and treatment efforts,” said
Schleifer. “Protecting human rights is a matter of life and death for
thousands of Jamaicans affected by AIDS.”
Human Rights Watch called on the Jamaican government to
reform the criminal justice system to protect all citizens against torture and
abuse. It also called on the government to repeal the sodomy law, end arrests
and prosecutions based on adult consensual homosexual conduct, ensure
protection of HIV/AIDS outreach workers, and protect people living with
HIV/AIDS against discrimination.
Hated
to Death: Homophobia, Violence, and Jamaica’s HIV/AIDS Epidemic
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