8496: Re: Haiti - the UN - gays (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

From: Charles Arthur

I am still not sure what occured at the United Nations General Assembly 
Special Session on HIV/AIDS (UNGASS) on 26 June 2001, although it does appear 
that Haiti was one of a number of countries that abstained from a motion 
objecting to the ban on the participation of Karyn Kaplan, the International 
Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission's HIV Program Officer, in the official 
Round Table on HIV/AIDS and human rights. 

I have written to Ambassador Lelong, Haiti's ambassador to the UN, asking for 
clarification of the reasons why the Republic of Haiti abstained from this 
motion, because it seems as though Haiti has sided with a number of states 
who do not recognise the rights of gays and lesbians, and who wish to prevent 
representatives of a significant section of societies all over the world from 
participating in an important international forum.