AIDS Activist killed on eve of World AIDS Day

Human Rights Watch is reporting that Steve Harvey, a leading Jamaica HIV activist (on the left in the photo), was found shot dead on November 30. He is noted by supporters as working to defend the health and human rights of people living with and at high-risk of HIV/AIDS.

According to Jamaican police, at least four assailants forced their way into Harvey’s home when he returned from work around 1 a.m. They tied up Harvey and two people staying with him, stole a number of their possessions, and abducted Harvey in the company car. One of the gun men was reported to have said to Mr Harvey and his two house-mates: ‘We hear that you are gay’. Two of the men denied it.Harvey was found with gunshot wounds in his back and head in a rural area miles from his home.

For more than a decade, Harvey was a leader in the struggle to defend the health and human rights of people living with and at high risk of HIV/AIDS. He worked with Jamaica AIDS Support since 1997, and represented the interests of marginalized people and people living with HIV/AIDS in Jamaica and throughout the region.

Jamaica has one of the highest murder rates in the world. With a population of only 2.7 million people, the country has seen 1,383 murders in 2005 alone. Gun violence is common and homophobia rife.

Last year, the founder of Jamaica’s gay rights movement, Brian Williamson, was murdered. Investigators claimed the motive for murder was robbery, since a safe was missing and the apartment ransacked. However, many believe the killing was a hate crime.

On Sunday, Harvey led an annual candle-lit vigil in memory of those killed by HIV. Supporters are now mourning the death of one of their strongest defendants of people living with HIV/AIDS.

“Steve Harvey was a person of extraordinary bravery and integrity, who worked tirelessly to ensure that some of Jamaica’s most marginalized people had the tools and information to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS,” said Rebecca Schleifer, researcher with the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights Program at Human Rights Watch and author of a recent report on anti-gay violence and HIV/AIDS in Jamaica. “I have seen the impact of Steve’s work firsthand, and been inspired by his courage and capacity to reach out to and make a profound difference in the lives of Jamaicans affected by HIV/AIDS. His death on the eve of World AIDS Day gives us one more reason to pause and reflect on the significance of activists’ work in the fight against AIDS.”

“Steve Harvey’s death is an enormous loss,” Schleifer said. “But it is essential that his murder does not succeed in intimidating other human rights workers. It is vital that the Jamaican government condemns this brutal crime, and brings the perpetrators to justice.”