Human rights campaigners have described a decision to uphold laws which made gay sex illegal in St Vincent and the Grenadines as a “travesty of justice”.

The country’s top court handed down its decision on Friday saying the nation’s colonial era laws which call for 10 years imprisonment for anal intercourse, and five-year jail terms for “gross indecency” would remain.

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Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish, two men from the country who now live in the US and the UK filed the complaint in 2019. The fact that they do not live in the country may have weakened their case.

Cristian González Cabrera, a senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, called the ruling “a travesty of justice”.  Cabera said the decision represented “tacit state endorsement” of the discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community.

Téa Braun, chief executive of the London-based human rights organization Human Dignity Trust said the decision was a huge disappointment.

“This is a huge disappointment for LGBT people in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  The judgment stands in stark contrast to decisions striking out these outdated laws by neighbouring courts in Barbados, Antigua and St Kitts in 2022, as well as other courts around the world.”

“There are still six countries in the Americas where laws criminalising LGBT people that have been in place since colonial times continue to dwell on the statute books. Today’s decision, predicated in part on the fact that the individual claimants do not live in St Vincent, frustratingly upholds these stigmatising laws.” Braun said.

OIP Staff

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