Gay Rights Activists Arrested in Nepal
The
Advocate, August 17, 2004
The arrest of 39 members of a gay rights-AIDS advocacy
group in Nepal has drawn the criticism of one U.N. agency. UNAIDS on Monday
urged the Nepalese government to ensure that other advocacy workers providing
AIDS advice are able to work freely, Agence France-Presse reports. “UNAIDS
is deeply concerned about the recent detention and reported mistreatment of 39
members of the Blue Diamond Society, a Nepalese AIDS nongovernmental
organization working with sexual minorities,” the agency said in a statement
released from Geneva. The agency said it fully supports the work of Blue
Diamond, whose members were detained on the evening of August 9. The arrests
were earlier reported as having taken place on August 7.
Police last week said the 39 Blue Diamond Society
members, who were rounded up in raids on bars and clubs in Nepal, face charges
of spreading perversion. The Blue Diamond Society is seeking international
support to ward off calls for it to be declared illegal. A petition seeking
the group’s ban is pending before Nepal’s supreme court, with the
government yet to state its position. Leading international human rights group
Human Rights Watch has demanded that Nepalese authorities release the group.
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