Centre for Applied Human Rights
Jaevion Nelson
Jamaica, CAHR, Spring 2012
I am a youth development, human rights and HIV/AIDS practitioner.
I have been working in development since 2002. I have about ten years of experience in governance, advocacy and programme development on issues relating sexual reproductive health and rights (SRHR), violence prevention, human rights, children's rights and youth participation and development and media and communication.
Currently, I am the Executive Director of the Jamaica Youth Advocacy Network (JYAN), Chair of the HIV Young Leaders' Fund (HYLF), 1st Vice Chair of the Jamaica Country Coordinating Mechanism (JCCM) for the Global Fund in Jamaica, member of the Delegation of Developing Country NGOs to the Board of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), Washington DC Youth Force for the AIDS 2012 Conference, and Board of Directors of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC) and Help Jamaica Children.
I do work around many issues in Jamaica. I am particularly interested in the rights of sexual and gender minorities and other vulnerable and marginalized people. I do advocacy and lobbying both at the national and international levels and coordinate public education and promotional activities towards sensitizing people about the equality, dignity and rights of people.
As a visiting fellow at the Centre for Applied Human Rights (CAHR), I have been conducting research to determine the extent to which Jamaicans in the Diaspora could support the advocacy for the protection and promotion of the equality and rights of sexual and gender minorities in Jamaicans. I have also had the opportunity to connect and work with other human rights activists and organisations in London. I was invited by Kaleidoscope Trust to speak at a Reception hosted during World Pride by the Speaker of the House of Commons and I volunteered with them on Pride Day. I also presented some findings from my research at the Double Jeopardy Conference hosted by the University of Greenwich. There were many other activities that were possible as a result of my fellowship, including attending a conference for the launch of Google's global equality campaign.