“They told LGBTQ+ people that we were criminals in our own country. That message ends today”
BY ELLA GAUCI, IMAGE PROVIDED
A landmark judgement by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) has ruled that Trinidad and Tobago’s laws criminalising adult consensual same-sex intimacy are unconstitutional.
This case was brought to the JCPC by Jason Jones, a human rights activist, who has been fighting for LGBTQIA+ rights in Trinidad and Tobago for 11 years. Prior to this judgement, Trinidad and Tobago was one of some 34 Commonwealth countries that continued to criminalise homosexuality based on colonial-era British laws.
In 2018, Jones filed a historic lawsuit in the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago, challenging the constitutionality of Sections 13 and 16 in the Sexual Offences Act 1986. In this Act, section 13 prohibited “buggery” with a maximum term of imprisonment of 25 years. Under section 16, “serious indecency” was also prohibited, with a maximum term of imprisonment of five years. In particular, section 16 extended this prohibition to women. In Jones v Trinidad and Tobago, the High Court ruled that sections 13 and 16 of the Act were unconstitutional.
However, in 2025, the Court of Appeal allowed the Attorney General’s appeal against the 2018 High Court ruling. This was due to the Savings Clause in the Constitution, which prevents 1925 colonial-era laws from being reviewed. Jones then took the case to the JCPC, the twin island republic’s highest court of appeal. It marked the first time the JCPC heard an LGBTQIA+ decriminalisation legal challenge.
Speaking about the judgement, Jones said, “Whilst I welcome this judgment, it does not, however, address the main issues of human rights and equality for LGBTQ+ people which have been denied using British colonial era laws across the Commonwealth and beyond. These laws never reflected who we are as a people and a nation: diverse, multiracial, and secular. They told LGBTQ+ people that we were criminals in our own country. That message ends today.”
Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP, who convened a parliamentary reception in support of the case, also spoke about the power of this judgement. “Today’s ruling is not only a victory for Jason but for LGBTQ+ people across Trinidad and Tobago and in former British colonies, who have lived for far too long under the threat of these repressive laws […] Britain exported these homophobic laws across the Commonwealth, and we have a responsibility to stand with those still working to end the continued damage they do.”
Mr Anand Ramlogan SC, counsel for the Appellant, said the judgment is “a landmark victory for gay rights, equal dignity and respect for private and family life in Trinidad and Tobago.”
Jones fled Trinidad and Tobago in 1996 after experiencing homophobic violence.
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