Robert Carr - HIV activist, Gay/MSM pioneering advocate, passes away in Toronto
Dr Robert Carr died yesterday, 10th of May 2011, at his home in Toronto, Canada. According to Don Baxter, outgoing Executive Director of the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations (AFAO) and Co-Chair, with Carr, on the Global Forum for MSM and HIV (MSMGF), "his death was sudden and certainly unexpected - but apparently peaceful." Carr was Director of Policy and Advocacy at the International Coalition of AIDS Services Organisations (ICASO). He had been active in the field of HIV since 2000, when he began research and advocacy on stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV in Jamaica. In 2002 he became Executive Director of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, a national NGO serving the most disenfranchised in Jamaican society, including women, men and children living with HIV, prisoners, the deaf and hearing impaired, sex workers, and men who have sex with men.
Dr Carr went on to co-found the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, was the first Caribbean delegate on the NGO Delegation of the Programme Coordinating Board of UNAIDS, was Co-Chair of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition, and a member of the Steering Committee of both the Global Coalition on Women and AIDS and the UNAIDS Reference Group on HIV and Human Rights, in addition to serving as one of the Co-Chairs of MSMGF.
APCOM joins with ICASO, the MSMGF and the very large circle of his family, friends and colleagues around the world who mourn the passing of this great spirit and quiet, effective advocate. “Robert was a visionary, a tireless leader for health and human rights, a champion of the marginalized and an indefatigable optimist who would never stop reaching out and building bridges to get things done," said Jeffrey O’Malley, Director of the UNDP HIV/AIDS Group in a related story on undp.org.
This article was adapted from a biography listing for the international forum, The Challenging Landscape of Global Public Health, at Columbia Univesity in late 2010. See the original listing on globalpublichealthconference.org.
