Robert Carr

The CVC operates as "a network of indigenous frontline service providers working on rights-based programming with marginalized groups across the Caribbean." Today, several aspects of the organization’s work include helping to strengthen the Caribbean Sex Worker Coalition, collaborating with the Caribbean Forum for Liberation and Acceptance of Genders and Sexualities and supporting burgeoning transgender groups in different countries."

Carr’s regional and global reputation and his ability to relate to CARICOM, International Funding Agencies and United Nations agencies such as UNAIDS, UNFPA, UNIFEM and UNDP gave the Coalition critical funding for its strategic objectives; writing,

"The author of several books, Dr. Carr wrote extensively on human rights and HIV, as well as on the social context that drives stigma and discrimination." He was "widely recognized as one of the world’s leading researchers on cultural forces and the unfolding of the AIDS pandemic." Described as a part of "a new generation of Caribbean and African descent intellectuals who form part of a larger formation of New World black intellectuals[,] two of the central themes of Carr's work—how geographical relationships of power have shaped the politics and the history of the New World and how black subjects have located themselves within those geographies of power[—]offer[ed] new models of interdisciplinary and cross-cultural analysis for both African American and Caribbean studies."

Carr also felt that while targeted programs must address the issues of education, economics, health and wellbeing for vulnerable populations, the enabling environment that drove their marginalization—what he saw as "a constant assault on the humanity of gay and bisexual people from elected officials, homophobic dance hall artists, and religious leaders who believe that gay rights are against God’s will"—must also be changed to facilitate their advancement. He therefore worked with his dedicated team of activists to dismantle the homophobic attitudes and promote the establishment of a safer, more inclusive environment as a key component of their programs, particularly as it related to the national legal and policy frameworks that supported this marginalization. His work as a human rights activist not only embraced this need for legislative and policy changes to remove discrimination and stigma but also the establishment of specific programs managed by marginalized groups to empower them and address their health and social needs. Including health and social needs directly tied to a legacy of violence:

On 10 May 2011, at the age of 48, Carr died suddenly from arrhythmia of the heart at his residence in Toronto, Canada. Ceremonies to honour his life and work were held in Toronto, New York, Jamaica and Trinidad.

Because of his advocacy at international conferences and at meetings of the UNAIDS Reference groups on HIV and Human Rights, other working groups, and advisory committees he was able to raise concerns about the urgency of addressing the needs of vulnerable populations across all nations as part of a global strategy. His presentations at international meetings included his famous “Bullshit Address” presentation in Vienna in July 2010 during closing remarks at the Plenary Session MSMG Forum Pre- Conference Meeting to the International AIDS Conference in Vienna, Austria (You Tube: The Global forum on MSM & HIV: Part 5: Closing Plenary; Robert Carr; Vienna July 2010). Carr became a global champion of the rights of vulnerable populations and worked with international agencies to promote human rights and access to critical services.

"In 2006, Robert joined with other global advocates to found the Global Forum on MSM & HIV (MSMGF) in recognition of the lack of attention to gay men and other MSM in the global HIV epidemic." At the MSMGF, Carr served as a mentor – "not just for the organization, but to other activists from emerging MSM regional networks throughout the world."

By 2005, Carr "co-founded and was the first Executive Director of the Caribbean Vulnerable Communities Coalition (CVC), one of the first Caribbean organizations to focus on issues related to the rights and needs of sexual minorities." He originally established the coalition "[i]n response to a lack of access to HIV and health services in Jamaica,""reaching out to colleagues in Jamaica, Trinidad, St. Lucia and beyond. In December 2004 a call went out to civil society actors attending a meeting of UNAIDS in Montego Bay, Jamaica. They [sic] call was for them to first get together in Kingston to talk about the concerns and the possibility of creating a network of some kind. The meeting included representatives from the Eastern Caribbean, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Curacao, - a cross-section of the French, English, Spanish and Dutch speaking Caribbean. The participants agreed to create a forum through which they could combine efforts. They understood that it would go a far way to help create the political space for the views and voices of the key populations to be heard."

In 2004, Carr and his colleagues began a social change campaign to break the silence on violence against men who have sex with men in Jamaica, stimulate public dialogue and change the institutional attitudes and behaviours. The programme approach used by Carr and his colleagues has included interpersonal communication, institutional communication, mass media and other traditional information, education and communication tools. Carr has used media interventions, a dedicated website page with resources, radio and television public service announcements, key spokespersons and research.

Carr's doctoral thesis was the basis for his first book, Black Nationalism in the New World: Readings in the African American and West Indian Experience in 2002. The book was part of the Latin America Otherwise Series published by Duke University to give a “new dimension to the concept of subalternity by linking, on the one hand, the history of colonial India to the colonial history of slavery in the Caribbean and in the United States, and on the other, by showing that colonial subalternity, as it has been defined by the South Asian Studies collective, always has a 'color'."

His academic focus, however, soon shifted to social studies and social work. Before graduation from UWI in 2001, Carr became Coordinator of the Research and Development Working Group at Jamaica Network of Seropositives (JN+). Between 2002 and 2004, he was also a part-time lecturer with the UWI Mona's Faculty of Social Sciences and taught a Quantitative Research Method course. From 2006 to 2008, he served as the Coordinator of the Graduate Program's Unit at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication.

Between late 2001 and mid 2002 Carr worked with the United Kingdom's International HIV/AIDS Alliance and the Jamaica Ministry of Health as a Program Planning Consultant to Jamaica AIDS Support for Life (JASL), providing technical assistance to JASL in the areas of program development and human resource management. His consulting work paved the way for a permanent opportunity with JASL as the Director of Targeted Interventions, and by November 2002, "he became Executive Director of Jamaica AIDS Support for Life, a national NGO serving Jamaican society’s most disenfranchised populations, including prisoners, the hearing impaired, people who use drugs, sex workers, transgender people, and gay and other men who have sex with men."

In September 1998, his post-graduate education continued at the St. Augustine Campus of the University of the West Indies in Trinidad, where he completed a one-year Diploma in Social Work, graduating with distinction. He then returned to Jamaica and enrolled in the Master’s in Social Work program at the Mona Campus of The UWI, where in 2002 he again graduated with distinction.

In 1992 Carr became an Assistant Professor with the Department of English at George Mason University, where he taught until June 1997. He introduced new courses on black literature, and published numerous articles as a subaltern scholar on issues affecting developing countries.

From 1988 to 1998 Carr lived in Washington DC. In 1994, he completed his Doctorate Degree in Philosophy (English).

He moved to Maryland in 1981, just before his 18th birthday, to begin his post-secondary and university education. He attended Johns Hopkins University for his Bachelor’s Degree in Arts and then the University of Maryland (College Park) for his Master’s and Doctorate Degrees specializing in African-American Literature.

At the age of seven, Robert and his older sister, Carolyn, moved to Jamaica in April 1970 because their father accepted a position with the United Nations Pan American Health Organization. This move brought Robert in closer contact with the Jamaican side of his family. He attended Meadowbrook Primary School and in 1974 went on to Meadowbrook High School where he stayed until 1980. Still a student at Meadowbrook High School, Carr pursued a part-time course in Poetry and Play Writing at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus, in Jamaica. There he not only attended classes, but wrote a play and poetry that was published in the university's official publication, Focus.

Dr. Robert Carr (23 February 1963 – 10 May 2011) was a Trinidadian (and at the age of 40 became a dual national of Jamaica) scholar and human rights activist who dedicated his life to bringing public attention to issues related to stigma and discrimination against persons living with or affected by HIV/AIDS.