A defeat in Jamaica, then another in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: in the Caribbean, LGBT activists were held in check twice in the space of a few months, in their struggle to obtain, before the courts, the repeal of laws that punish homosexual relations with heavy prison sentences in several countries in the region.
Friday February 16, the High Court of Justice of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, seized in 2019 by two men who fled their country due to the homophobia prevailing there, ruled in favor of maintaining two articles of the penal code of 1988 which prohibits intimate relations with another person of the same sex. In this small country in the southern Caribbean, this offense is punishable by ten years in prison. These provisions are “reasonably justified” to preserve good morals “who presided over the development of the Constitution and who are omnipresent in society”, wrote Judge Esco Henry. The magistrate also invoked in her 90-page judgment the need to avoid “an uncontrolled avalanche of new HIV cases” in this micro-state of 110,000 inhabitants.
“It’s a travesty of justice”, says lawyer Jeshua Bardoo. About ten churches, grouped within a “Christian coalition”, were authorized by Judge Henry to join the trial as interested parties, alongside the government. “Hypocrisytance Me Bardoo, founder of a local human rights NGO. Many practices contrary to religion, such as sexual relations outside marriage or adultery, are commonplace in Saint Vincent, but no one is calling for their criminalization. »
This decision by the country’s highest court comes less than four months after a similar decision by the Supreme Court of Jamaica. On October 27, 2023, this body rejected an appeal against articles 76, 77 and 79 of the Jamaican penal code, inherited from a colonial law of 1864 which punishes with prison and forced labor “the abominable crime of sodomy”.
Life imprisonment in Guyana
These two successive setbacks put an end to a series of victories for LGBT organizations in court in the Caribbean: between 2016 and 2022, five countries in the region repealed their laws prohibiting homosexual relations following court decisions. To date, such provisions remain in force in six Caribbean countries, all members of the Commonwealth. More draconian, Guyana’s legislation provides for life imprisonment.
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