Last week, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ High Court made a ruling to uphold laws criminalizing same-sex intimacy. The decision elicited criticism and disappointment among LGBTQ+ activists and advocates. This ruling, delivered by Justice Esco Henry, pertains to the assertion that these laws are “reasonably required” to protect public health, with particular regard to the nation’s HIV rates.
To navigate the nation’s “limited resources,” Justice Henry deemed these laws as the “least drastic means to achieve” the goal of lessening HIV rates as comprehensively as possible. She also posited that they do not infringe on the Constitution. Furthermore, she raised concerns over potential public health crises that could arise from an unchecked rise in new HIV cases, viewing this as a situation warranting appropriate public health responses embedded in the contested laws.
The sections maintained in the recent judgement are Section 146 of the Criminal Code 1988, imposing a sentence of up to 10 years for acts of sodomy, and Section 148, outlawing public or private sexual practices between people of the same sex. These laws were challenged in a 2019 High Court case initiated by Javin Kevin Vinc Johnson and Sean Macleish, both of whom openly identify as gay and had to leave the country. Their claims were rejected, and they were both ordered to pay EC$$7,500 (about £2,200) to the attorney general.
A report by the Human Rights Watch in July 2023 revealed that even if violence and discrimination against LGBTQ+ individuals are rarely prosecuted in the country, they foster a culture of intolerance. The report also emphasizes that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines’ enforcement of such laws contradicts its obligations as a signatory of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which explicitly prohibits any form of discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Similar anti-LGBTQ+ laws are also in place in five other English-speaking Caribbean nations: Lucia; Dominica; Jamaica; Guyana; and Grenada. However, there have been recent successful repeals of similar measures in countries like Antigua and Barbuda (2022); Saint Kitts and Nevis (2022); Barbados (2022) and Trinidad and Tobago (2018).
Finally, there has been an escalating global concern over the treatment of LGBTQ+ individuals in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as in various other Caribbean countries.
Given this international attention and the human rights implications, legal practitioners worldwide are observing these developments carefully with hopes of change in the contentious landscape of LGBTQ+ rights in the Caribbean.