The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC), the UK's highest court of appeal for several Commonwealth nations, is hearing arguments in a case challenging Trinidad and Tobago's colonial-era law that criminalises anal sex between consenting men. The case has drawn attention from activists across the Caribbean, with a decision expected within three to six months.
Background of the Law
The law, often referred to as the "buggery law" or "sodomy law," was originally enacted in 1925 and later incorporated into Trinidad and Tobago's 1986 Sexual Offences Act. It makes consensual same-sex intimacy punishable by up to five years in prison. In 2017, LGBTQ+ rights activist Jason Jones challenged the law, and in 2018, the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago ruled that it violated his constitutional rights to privacy and equality. However, in 2023, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision following an intervention by the Attorney General. Jones is now appealing to the JCPC.
Broader Implications for Colonial Laws
The Trinidadian government, led by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, is opposing Jones in the case. Persad-Bissessar argued that the case could have wide-ranging implications for "savings clauses" in Caribbean constitutions, which were designed to preserve British colonial laws after independence. "This ruling is going to be a very profound decision, not just impacting on sodomy laws but that whole issue of the saving clause," she told the Guardian. Darrell Allahar, a minister and one of the government's lawyers, described the hearing as a "very good exercise" to clarify the scope of these clauses.
Regional Context
Activists across the Caribbean are closely monitoring the proceedings. While several countries in the region have decriminalised homosexuality—including the Bahamas (1991), Barbados, Dominica, St Lucia, and Antigua and Barbuda (more recently)—anal sex remains a crime in Grenada, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The UK government repealed similar laws in its overseas territories (Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Turks and Caicos) in 2001.
Activist's Perspective
Jason Jones, 61, expressed frustration that the case reached the British court. "At any time over the last decade of my legal challenge, the state and indeed parliament could have put a stop to this and just removed these heinous laws themselves," he said. "They have wasted millions of taxpayers' money fighting me." He described the law as "dehumanising LGBTQ+ people" and expressed confidence in his case: "The privy council will never uphold a 500-year-old homophobic piece of British law that goes against the rights of the individual. Not in 2026."
International Attention
Leo Varadkar, former Taoiseach of Ireland and a global LGBTQI and human rights fellow at Harvard University, highlighted the irony that all five countries in the Americas where homosexuality remains criminalised are former British colonies. In a Harvard paper, he noted that "from Canada in the north to Chile in the south, homosexuality has been long since decriminalised" except for Jamaica, Guyana, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and Grenada. He emphasised that the JCPC judges would preside over the hearing knowing that human rights and privacy are enshrined in British law.
