MOTION RE COLOMBIA

I have been doing a lot of work around matters re Colombia with PCS Proud. I went to a meeting last year and 2 with the top union leaders and the leading human rights lawyers fighting for human rights.

There are some things to point out from that meeting.
1. After talking about issues affecting union leaders and other people in Colombia nobody mentioned what was happening to the LGBT people an their plight, until I brought up the question.
2. Until recently there has been little support or help for LGBT people suffering under the regime.
3. There is little publicity or stories of LGBT people in Colombia. There are underground LGBT groups now fighting for the cause. We need to publicise the killings, personal stories of terror and name and shame the government.

Get TV programme makers out there, record their stories, write about the plight and make sure it reaches across the world. It is the support and lobbying for change from the rest of the world that will embarrass the government. as they fear bad publicity.
We need to make sure that people from Colombia get the support and their applications for asylum are not refused from these countries. We need to help our brothers and sisters in this country.

My speech at LGBT TUC conference 2006 Jay black members rep © 2006