NEW DRAFT EU CONSITUTIONAL TREATY

After months of negotiations, EU Heads of State and Governments reached a historic agreement on the EU's first ever Constitution on 18 June. The final text pre-serves the great majority of the draft text proposed by the Conven-tion but the price of the agreement was the en-trenchment of unanimity in some areas such as tax, for-eign and security policy and in any future review of the Constitution.

From an LGBT perspective the key elements are:


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From:
Ashok Row Kavi
Chair,
The Humsafar Trust
Mumbai Metro
India


Dear All

The Government of India, especially the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has commissioned the Humsafar Trust to write a position paper on the status of gay men, MSM and other sexual minorities in India as a first step towards a comprehensive policy document that will help in health programs across the country with a special focus on STI control and HIV/AIDS.

Last year and early into this year the Humsafar Trust completed two major tasks set for it. It was asked to help write up a comprehensive counseling manual for sexual minorities in Voluntary Confidential Counseling Testing Centres (VCCTCs) across India, This task was completed after a panel of psychiatrists and academics helped polish the preliminary manual started/written up by the Humsafar Trust. This manual was then extended further to include help in counseling other
sexual minorities and marginalised groups like victims of sexual assault, prison populations and vulnerable youth. This too was completed early this year.