Bangkok: Hotel ban on Aids group raises rights debate

[webfact]

DISCRIMINATION
Hotel ban on Aids group raises rights debate
CHULARAT SAENGPASSA,
CHANIKAN PHUMHIRAN
THE NATION

Network says move discriminatory and a violation; NHRC to look into complaint

BANGKOK: -- A NETWORK of people living with HIV/Aids and their advocates yesterday asked the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to investigate alleged rights violations and discriminatory practices after a Bangkok-based hotel reportedly denied HIV/Aids NGOs' requests to host events at the hotel.

Aids Access Foundation director Nimit Tienudom said there were still problems such as the hotel's refusal to accommodate the HIV/Aids NGOs.

"We don't know exactly what caused [the hotel ban] but [we] think, as a service provider, it should respect others and not discriminate against people living with HIV/Aids, because that is a very bad vision," he added.

He praised as good policy the NHRC's July 25 announcement that a job application requirement of an HIV-blood test was a rights violation.

Nimit said his foundation had used the hotel's services on at least 10 occasions a year without problems over the past four years. But the Path2health Foundation's planned event was turned down in July.

His foundation's request to use the facility for 1663 Aids' hotline volunteers' training on July 14 was also denied, he said.

They were told by hotel staff that it was a new policy to refrain from taking Aids or anti-drug organisations following customers' complaints, he added.

Nimit said the request for an NHRC probe was to find out if the decision was discriminatory - as well as urging hotel executives to get correct information about HIV/Aids, to improve services, and to refrain from discrimination or rights violation.

"If we simply accept the hotels' conditions and find another hotel, it means we confirm to society that we cannot live together. We have to inform society that this is a bias, a wrongdoing, a rights violation and a discrimination that stemmed from misunderstanding," he said.

Thai Network of People Living With HIV/Aids president Apiwat Kwangkaew said such discrimination stemmed from misunderstanding about the virus and they wanted the NHRC to probe them.

"We hoped this would lead to talks for better understanding and public awareness that Aids is not a disgusting thing, while the hotel would learn to see it in a new perspective," he said.

He added that the network's mission was to continuously campaign against HIV/Aids-related stigma so people could live together without rights violations.

NHRC member Taejing Siripanich, who took up the complaint, said the agency had no duty to judge who was right or wrong, but to determine if the action was a rights violation.

The NHRC would investigate and summon the hotel for explanation.

"I believe this kind of discrimination [exists] in society - due to lack of information or ignorance. Sometimes we accept it because we don't want to cause trouble… If Thailand still has this kind of thinking, how can people living with HIV/Aids live? Where else will they go?" he added.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Hotel-ban-on-Aids-group-raises-rights-debate-30239872.html

[thenation]2014-07-31[/thenation]

[saakura]

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

[Suriya4]

It is a good decision. Else ebora event and sick people may be next.

[chooka]

What next, banning people with cancer? 

[Puccini]

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

It is true that a hotel is free to decline to quote a price for hosting an event without giving a reason, but if they give a reason it should not be one that can be construed as being discriminatory. In my experience, the standard Thai way of not saying no is to quote a ridiculously high price. Perhaps the person who decided the refusal was a farang.

[DaninBangkok]

Sadly, naming the hotel seems to be out of the question. That might make someone lose face, and that's the really sad part of this whole mess.

Name the hotel so we, the public, can either take our business there in support of their decision, or boycott.

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[nottocus]

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

[toryboy1979]

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

 

You cannot be serious!

 

Years ago when HIV was at its peak I was running a Conference Venue in Central London and my West Indian staff who laid out the furniture for the meetings refused to handle chairs that had been used by a conference that had been discussing the HIV/Aids epidemic.   However with a little education from myself they came to understand that their natural fear was misplaced particularly so as none of the participants of the meeting were victims of the disease.  So my message is one of education.

 

As for the comments on this thread supporting the ban, I am personally glad I do not know any of the authors.

[Tokay]

Someone please PM me the name of this hotel. I'll send this news to every western news outlet and AIDS/HIV organization in the world.

[laurentbkk]

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

 

I just hope your comment was just ironic , if you really think that then I feel pity for you .

[Travel Dude]

Name of the hotel? Or just a couple of letters so we can accurately guess. Or perhaps location and number of rooms....?
Give us some clues otherwise the whole article is useless

[chooka]

 

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

 

I just hope your comment was just ironic , if you really think that then I feel pity for you .

 

I took his comment as dig against the hotel and I am sure he/she wasn't serious.  It was sarcasm and the hotel deserves it.

[kamahele]

Sad to see that there is still so much ignorance in the world about HIV and AIDS. HIV is not easy to get, as there must be a transfer of bodily fluids and even then.... You can't get it because someone slept there or used the toilet and the sink etc.

[sae57]

Interesting that they'll name and photograph a person suspected but not convicted of a crime. But don't give the name of this hotel. Is this typical?

[DaninBangkok]

Interesting that they'll name and photograph a person suspected but not convicted of a crime. But don't give the name of this hotel. Is this typical?

Yes. It's all about allowing the business and offending employee to save face. Very sad.

Sent from my GT-I9082 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[chooka]

Interesting that they'll name and photograph a person suspected but not convicted of a crime. But don't give the name of this hotel. Is this typical?

Maybe a large hotel and the extremely powerful defamation laws in Thailand.  Even if it is factual you can't mention them.

[smedly]

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

 

 

and the chances are you are one of the idiots running around that has no clue whether you have it or not having never been tested - the most dangerous of all, remember that for every one person in the world that is aware of their condition there is another that is not - I know who I'd be hangin out with if I had a choice

[Friendly Stranger]

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

Lol. That had to be tongue in cheek. Ahhh, the dark ages, where left handed ppl used to be killed. Edited July 31, 2014 by Friendly Stranger

[atsiii]

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

 

Right, like "no blacks or Christians allowed;" it's my right as a business owner.  Yea, right... give us a break.

[axact]

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

 

Ah a Neaderthal cave man is alive and posting on Thaivisa, thought they had become extinct but I was obviously wrong.

 

Pity you never had an education as you would know you cannot get HIV off a toilet seat !

[h90]

 

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

 

Right, like "no blacks or Christians allowed;" it's my right as a business owner.  Yea, right... give us a break.

 

 

There are a lot of bars in Thailand that are Japanese only. Farangs not allowed. (Blacks not allowed as well I guess but not mentioned).

 

[kartman]

The name is in the other news outlet that can't be quoted

[Bluespunk]

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

So if the hotel doesn't like black people/white people, Muslims, Jews, Christians, disabled people, gay people, they should be allowed to ban them too?

[Bluespunk]

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

It is true that a hotel is free to decline to quote a price for hosting an event without giving a reason, but if they give a reason it should not be one that can be construed as being discriminatory. In my experience, the standard Thai way of not saying no is to quote a ridiculously high price. Perhaps the person who decided the refusal was a farang.

Regarding your last sentence, why?

[Tomtomtom69]

 

Interesting that they'll name and photograph a person suspected but not convicted of a crime. But don't give the name of this hotel. Is this typical?

Maybe a large hotel and the extremely powerful defamation laws in Thailand.  Even if it is factual you can't mention them.

 

 

How about the almost non-existant privacy laws then? Isn't that a case of defamation? Why is it that on TV news reports pictures of Thai ID cards or occasionally of foreigners passports, with all their details EXPOSED are allowed? Although I will never commit a crime, if I were a criminal I would SUE for criminal defamation if my address or passport or whatever were exposed on TV or other forms of media. You just don't do that - that's how criminals find out where you live and go to rob you or kill you (in a worst case scenario). That's another reason why it's ILLEGAL to expose such information in the west. You can't even go up to a check-in counter of an airline back home (even THAI Airways) and ask if so and so is on the plane. They'll tell you that due to privacy concerns they can't tell you! Even if you are a parent or relative. Back in Thailand however, you can.

 

Please someone explain these contradictory laws.
 

[Tomtomtom69]

 

 

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

 

Right, like "no blacks or Christians allowed;" it's my right as a business owner.  Yea, right... give us a break.

 

 

There are a lot of bars in Thailand that are Japanese only. Farangs not allowed. (Blacks not allowed as well I guess but not mentioned).

 

 

 

You're right - lots of examples of racism in Thailand, in some cases not even necessarily just Thai vs. foreigner but even Japanese vs. other foreigners. I believe Thais normally are not allowed in these Japanese bars either.

 

Someone should expose this racism to the international news media (preferably secretly) so the owners can become embarrassed.
 

In China many businesses don't allow Japanese inside, at least during the anniversary of Japanese atrocities in September of every year when nationalist sentiment becomes very strong.

Edited July 31, 2014 by Tomtomtom69

[laocowboy2]

Slippery slope in allowing people to 'choose their customer base'. No blacks perhaps? Or like the old sign in colonial Singapore 'No dogs or Chinese' - and its equivalent in 19th century Bombay (substitute Indians for Chinese). No Arabs? No Jews? No Irish (common in 1950's in UK)?

 

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base? They are a business, not charity. Society at large should be educated so that business owners are not forced to take such unfair decisions.

 

[Bluespunk]

 

Interesting that they'll name and photograph a person suspected but not convicted of a crime. But don't give the name of this hotel. Is this typical?

Maybe a large hotel and the extremely powerful defamation laws in Thailand.  Even if it is factual you can't mention them.
 

 
How about the almost non-existant privacy laws then? Isn't that a case of defamation? Why is it that on TV news reports pictures of Thai ID cards or occasionally of foreigners passports, with all their details EXPOSED are allowed? Although I will never commit a crime, if I were a criminal I would SUE for criminal defamation if my address or passport or whatever were exposed on TV or other forms of media. You just don't do that - that's how criminals find out where you live and go to rob you or kill you (in a worst case scenario). That's another reason why it's ILLEGAL to expose such information in the west. You can't even go up to a check-in counter of an airline back home (even THAI Airways) and ask if so and so is on the plane. They'll tell you that due to privacy concerns they can't tell you! Even if you are a parent or relative. Back in Thailand however, you can.
 
Please someone explain these contradictory laws.
 

Thainess.

[VocalNeal]

I sympathise with them but then it should be the prerogative of a business owner to choose his customer base?

Yep. Just like a shop. Because there are goods for sale does not dictate that the shop owner must sell them. Hotel just needs to put a sign in reception. "We reserve the right to deny services to anyone under any condition or circumstances"

I empathize but business is business. Having such a publicized conference there could ruin the hotel and the attendees would simply move on.

[HerbalEd]

 

 

Good idea from the hotel. Who'd want people running around their hotel putting HIV on everything and all.

 

I just hope your comment was just ironic , if you really think that then I feel pity for you .

 

I took his comment as dig against the hotel and I am sure he/she wasn't serious.  It was sarcasm and the hotel deserves it.

 

If indeed it was sarcasm, it's still stupid. Seems there are some on tv.com who like to post stupid things like this, being deliberately vague in order to get attention. It's symptomatic of someone who has very low self esteem.