Archives: Media Releases

Contributor: Joel Simpson, Managing Director, SASOD 

The Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) is seeking “technical consultations” geared at refining their proposed revision of the Prevention of Discrimination Act (1997).

The organisation last year engaged in consultations with stakeholders on the proposed legislative amendment, which provides legal protection from discrimination in relation to the right to work for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Guyana.

SASOD’s Managing-Director Joel Simpson, however, related, “Based on the feedback [the revision of the bill] isn’t ready as yet.”

The organisation is lobbying for an amendment to the 1997 act to protect vulnerable persons within the LGBT community; the inclusion of “sexual orientation” will legally protect persons identifying as lesbian, gay and bi-sexual, while “gender identity” will offer protection to transgender persons.

Currently, the bill prohibits only discrimination in the workplace based on “race, sex, religion, colour, ethnic origin, indigenous population, national extraction, social origin, economic status, political opinion, disability, family responsibilities, pregnancy, marital status or age…”

Simpson explained to the Guyana Chronicle that while stakeholders across the board have signalled their support for this cause, the feedback garnered was that the bill needs additional “technical work” geared toward fashioning the bill for presentation.

“Yes, we’re addressing discrimination based on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE), but there are other kinds of things that are wrong with the bill,” he highlighted. “Now it’s not about whether you support non-discrimination for the right to work for LGBT people — we’ve gone past that– it’s about how should we fashion the bill.”

Part of these modifications needed would be the harassment provisions detailed in Section Eight of this legislation. Presently, the legislation allows for a narrow interpretation of harassment based on one’s sex and as such, only cisgenders (people whose gender identity matches the sex that they were assigned at birth) may be able to benefit from this provision.

“We have to look at the definition of harassment in the context of SOGIE, because as it is now it is very narrowly defined based on sex,” the director stated.

SASOD will be reaching out to “sexual rights lawyers”, such as lawyers who’ve worked in the area of sexual offences, human rights and sexuality to garner this prerequisite technical feedback.

In addition to the technical consultations, the organisation has planned to conduct a bipartisan parliamentary workshop, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) that has been instrumental in this revision process and the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Services.

The aim of this is to make parliamentarians on both sides of the aisle “champions” for the bill, according to Simpson, who is optimistic that the bill will enjoy widespread support if it reaches Parliament.

“This is a human rights issue,” he said and he posited that a “very very strong message” will be advanced, contributing to how social norms are shaped around discrimination in relation to employment if all parliamentarians act in unison to support this amendment.

Representatives of SASOD met with Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Basil Williams last June and it was reported that the minister requested that the organisation draft the proposed amendment and discussion paper for his and cabinet’s consideration.

While there have not been follow-up engagements with the minister, draftspersons representing him were part of the initial consultations and indicated the ministry’s general support for this bill.

SASOD had reached out to the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Guyana office for support in the form of a legislative drafting consultant to draft the proposed amendment bill and discussion paper to engage key stakeholders.

While the amendment of the legislation is in the pipeline, SASOD has taken steps to provide some pro bono (or voluntary) support to the vulnerable groups. Under its ‘Community Paralegal Services Initiatives’, the organisation currently has a pool of five lawyers offering their support vis a vis rights’ awareness and legal redress to the LGBT community.

The Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS (PANCAP) congratulates the Society Against Sexual Orientation Discrimination (SASOD) on the launch of a 12-month project to provide legal assistance to a range of vulnerable persons.

For a full description of the initiative click here.

Head of SASOD, Joel Simpson said the Community Paralegal Services Initiative targets lesbians, gays, transgenders, and sex workers. He said officials would be fanning out to entertainment spots, bars and clubs where sex workers frequent as well as communities to educate persons about their rights and redress services that are available.

The organisation will also provide legal aid for victims of intimate partner violence, juvenile delinquents, parties in family disputes, drug users and orphans.

SASOD Board Secretary, Attorney-at-Law, Mishka Puran said currently five Guyanese lawyers are providing free legal services.

Puran, who is the Guyana focal point and member of the Caribbean Lawyers for Social Justice, urged other interested lawyers to join the network.  To read a full transcript of Mishka Puran’s remarks click here.

The efforts are part of the work of the University of the West Indies-based Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Initiative.

To read remarks by Devanand Milton, President of Guyana Trans United (GTU), click here. 

The Pan Caribbean Partnership against HIV and AIDS, PANCAP, congratulates Human rights lawyer, Dr Christopher Arif Bulkan on his appointment as an acting Justice of Appeal, Georgetown Guyana.

In September 2017, Dr Bulkan was nominated by Cabinet for candidature to represent Guyana on the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC). He also was a former lecturer at the University of the West Indies with specialisations in Public Law, Constitutional Law, Caribbean Human Rights Law, and International Human Rights Law.

He also co-founded the Faculty of Law UWI Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP) at the Cave Hill campus, which is a group of law professors who engage in both litigation and advocacy aimed at promoting human rights.

Dr Bulkan has been involved in human rights advocacy for many years and has worked to establish and defend the rights of vulnerable and marginalised communities, including indigenous peoples, LGBT persons and persons living with HIV and AIDS. He has also been involved in public advocacy against the death penalty, both regionally and at events sponsored by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Dr Bulkan was appointed a PANCAP Champion for Change on September 12, 2017 during the relaunch of the initiative, Champions for change IV: ending AIDS by 2030’.  Read about the event here. 

Biography 

Dr Arif Bulkan is an attorney-at-law who formerly practised law in Guyana as a prosecutor and then criminal defence lawyer. He subsequently obtained a PhD in Law from Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, Canada, and currently lectures constitutional law and human rights law in the Faculty of Law of the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies. He is the author of ‘The Survival of Indigenous Rights in Guyana’, published by the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Guyana in 2014, and a co-author of ‘Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law’ along with Tracy Robinson and Adrian Saunders, published by Sweet and Maxwell in 2015; as well as the author of several articles in regional and international journals in the areas of constitutional law and human rights. As a consultant for PANCAP, Arif Bulkan produced a National Assessment of laws and policies impacting on HIV/AIDS in Guyana in 2004.

Arif Bulkan is a co-founder, along with Tracy Robinson and Douglas Mendes SC, of the University of the West Indies Rights Advocacy Project [U-RAP], which aims to promote human rights, equality and social justice in the Caribbean through litigation and advocacy. U-RAP initiated two ground-breaking cases seeking to promote the rights of LGBT persons in Belize and Guyana, both of which are currently under appeal. Between 2011 and 2015 Arif Bulkan served as a director of Transparency Institute of Guyana, an affiliate of Transparency International, which aims at monitoring and promoting accountability and transparency in public affairs. For his regional contributions to human rights and democracy, Arif Bulkan was conferred with the Anthony N Sabga Award for Public and Civic Contributions in 2017.

Early in the response, people living with or at risk of HIV were denied their right to health because of who they are or what they do — sex workers, people who use drugs, gay men and other men who have sex with men, women and young girls, transgender people — or because of the disease they were affected by. They were denied their right to health services, their right to medicines, their right to protect themselves from infection. In being denied these rights, they were also denied their right to dignity, their right to a voice, their right to justice and their ability to live happy and fulfilling lives.

Rather than standing by and allowing increasing numbers of people to be denied services and dignity, the AIDS response utilized the power of health and human rights frameworks to leverage change. The AIDS response positioned the demand for access to HIV treatment as a right to health, showing that health services are not a privilege for the few but rather the right of everyone, regardless of their HIV status. Activists used laws and the courts to protect individual rights — when sex workers were being criminalized for carrying condoms, they took cases to court to defend the right of women to protect their own health. Communities of people living with HIV and people affected by HIV became very skilled at knowing and using the law to defend and protect themselves. Groups of people living with HIV were able to use the knowledge of their rights and the law to argue for access to new medicines. The success of the AIDS response established a path for people living with other conditions, such as diabetes, tuberculosis, hepatitis or cervical cancer, to raise their voices and demand services and
treatment.

People living with or affected HIV have led the way in demonstrating the power of the right to health, but also the power of health to realize wider rights. In seeking and securing access to justice in the courts and creating the space to make their voices heard in political and scientific forums, people living with and affected by HIV have also able to realize their right to fair
treatment and their right to participate and contribute to their communities and society. People living with HIV demanded their right to work in a safe and non-discriminatory environment, to earn a decent wage and to contribute to the economy. Building on the foundation established by HIV rights-based arguments, people living with disabilities, migrants and people affected by
tuberculosis have been able to make progress in realizing their rights.

Today, a young woman may be focused on her right to a quality education and her right to seek the information and means to protect herself from HIV, sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy. However, her focus is not just on her current needs, but also on enabling her longer-term hopes and aspirations. Her immediate ability to realize her right to education and health
has consequences for her longer-term capacity to realize her right to decent work, her right to form her own opinions and the safety to express them publicly, and when and if she chooses, her right to get married and start her own family.

Similarly, an older man living with HIV will focus on his right to quality health services. In addition to his antiretroviral therapy, he will also have concerns about ensuring that he is able to benefit from the highest attainable standards of treatment and care for older people. He may need services and treatment for hypertension and diabetes. As he is getting older and is not able to work or earn money to pay for food and housing, he will be concerned about his right to be treated with dignity and respect and to be protected from discrimination in his old age. He will be focused on ensuring that his right to safety and security is fulfilled.

People living with or affected by HIV are first and foremost people, with busy and diverse lives and needs. Like all people, their lives change and evolve throughout their life, and with those changes come evolving needs that focus on different aspects of the right to health.

Read more in UNAIDS’ new report Right to Health.