Maurice Tomlinson, a Jamaican attorney and HIV activist who has traveled to all parts of the Caribbean giving presentations about the impact of homophobia on the HIV response - was invited to Belize by UNIBAM to conduct training and sensitization sessions in Belize City on the 14th to the 16th of January.
But he says he can't come because he is unwilling to break the law to conduct these sessions. The Immigration law of Belize states that prohibited immigrants include, quote "Any prostitute or homosexual who may have been living off or receiving proceeds of prostitution or homosexual behavior," end quote.
Belize and Trinidad are the only two countries in the Western Hemisphere to have such a ban and Tomlinson considers it a violation of his right to freedom of movement within the Caribbean Community.
He has initiated a challenge to Belize's Immigration Act before the highest court in the region, the Caribbean Court of Justice -CCJ. Hi would - be host, Caleb Orosco told us more:..
Caleb Orosco
"At this point he is going through a process where invitations were sent out, he decline those invitations because of existing, in his mind discriminatory laws between two countries; Trinidad and Tobago and from there he is calling his government to take charge of the issue otherwise he would do it himself. There is a specific timeline which he intends to give his government to respond to his request before he proceeds."
"He is an advocate officer for AIDS free world; he is serious about bringing down discriminatory laws and in this case Trinidad and Belize Immigration law because these are the only two countries in the Caribbean region which has these laws which he deems as unnecessary and discriminatory for persons who are gay and entering particular countries."
"It's part of a larger work that he is doing because he is also in his own country challenging freedom of expression issue where there are several media houses which has refuse to air several ad which speaks to love and respect. This is all part of our overall effort to find ways to address discrimination. We invite him to do a seminar and one of the reasons why we did that was because we valued documentation and for Belize with the rise in crime we see documentation as an important part of collecting evidence in our advocacy work that we hope will be instrumental in getting that for us in a very strong institutional way."
Monica Bodden
"It can be said that the law is not enforce in any way. Gay people travel freely and openly to Belize; gay cruises come here all the time. Why not just leave it alone?"
Caleb Orosco
"That a very basic and interesting question and it's very simple. If a law doesn't affect you it's not a priority. If the law doesn't affect your membership within a party it's not a priority. If it's not a priority in the manifesto it's in the bottom of the list in terms of the law. For persons who are aware personally intimately about specific cases of discrimination through immigration it is a priority and it's also a black eye."
In a statement posted on Facebook this evening, Maurice Tomlinson mentioned that the case has not yet reached the CCJ. He quotes, "We are still waiting to hear if the Jamaican government will take this case to the CCJ or grant me permission to do so".
Email
Print