IN JAMAICA (Gays pressured UWI to fire Professor BAIN) : Pressure mounts on UWI as Bar Association criticises firing of Professor Group plans 'massive protest' for tomorrow Sunday, May 25, 2014

 Sunday, May 25, 2014    

OPPOSITION to the sacking of Professor Brendan Bain continued to mount Friday as the influential Jamaican Bar Association (Jambar) took the University of the West Indies (UWI) to task while expressing concern that the controversial decision could have an adverse impact on experts giving testimony in Jamaica.

BAIN… fired for testimony in Belize case

At the same time, a group that started an online petition in support of Professor Bain said it has planned "a massive protest" for tomorrow at the UWI's main gate starting at 8:00 am.

The group, which said that more than 1,900 persons have already signed the online petition that has been sent to UWI Vice Chancellor Professor Nigel Harris' e-mail address, stated that the protest was being staged because of Harris' silence in the face of mounting opposition to Professor Bain's dismissal as head of the Caribbean HIV/AIDS Regional Training (CHART) Network.

"Stand up for what is right. We will not be silenced. Join thousands of other people from across Jamaica outside the vice chancellor's office (across from UWI Mona Campus main gate). This is not about your ideological background but about the principle of standing up for justice," the group said in an e-mail sent to petitioners and the media.

The UWI has been the target of heavy flak since last Tuesday when it announced that it had cashiered Bain because he has lost the confidence of the community that the CHART was established to serve.

CHART, which is funded by the United States President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), is designed to equip health care workers and counsellors with the skills to treat persons living with HIV. The programme also has an education component aimed at ending stigma and discrimination associated with HIV/AIDS.

The UWI made its decision after being pressured by a coalition of 33 gay and human rights lobby groups from across the Caribbean to fire Bain because of expert testimony he gave in a constitutional challenge brought by a gay Belizean man against that country's criminal code.

The Belizean, Caleb Orozco, had argued in September 2010 that the code, which states that "every person who has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any person or animal shall be liable to imprisonment for 10 years", violates his right to the recognition of human dignity, to personal privacy and the privacy of the home guaranteed by the Belize constitution. more