(Source: nassaulibrary.org) IN mid-August 2009, the 9th International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) took place. Amid discussions on medical, biological, funding and governance issues, there was a very healthy track packed with much debate — as well as much angst — about human rights issues. The idea that human rights is [...]

SULASTRI Ariffin has been around the world. Manager of the mak nyah (trans women) programme at PT Foundation, she has participated and spoken at conferences on HIV and sexuality in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Australia, Sri Lanka, India, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Switzerland. She has even met Richard Gere — twice. But in her 15 [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 19 March 2009: An average of one Aids death and three HIV infections are recorded daily in the country, the Dewan Rakyat was told today. Deputy Health Minister Datuk Dr Abd Latif Ahmad said the figure was based on the number of HIV infections, totalling 80,000 cases a year. He said there was [...]

PETALING JAYA, 10 Feb 2009: A significant moment in Malaysia’s human rights journey will take place tomorrow, but may be unfortunately eclipsed by the ongoing political turmoil in Perak. For the first time, Malaysia’s human rights record will undergo peer review at the United Nations in Geneva through a process called the Universal Periodic Review [...]

KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Dec 2008: The MCA’s government affairs monitoring bureau is against any plans to make it compulsory for non-Muslims to undergo human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) screening before getting married. Bureau head Datuk Seri Dr Chua Soi Lek, who is also the party deputy president, said: “We feel that it should not be made [...]

IPOH, 22 Dec 2008: Gerakan Deputy President Datuk Chang Ko Youn today hit out at the suggestion by Perak Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin yesterday that people with HIV must never be allowed to marry and should instead be quarantined for treatment. Describing the idea as primitive, Chang said such an idea had [...]