The Human Dignity Trust welcomes today’s judgment by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in The Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago and others v Jason Jones, which has decriminalised consensual same-sex intimacy in the country.
‘The judgment brings Trinidad & Tobago into line with the now well-established body of Caribbean and global case law recognising that these laws violate the human rights of LGBT+ people.
‘This is not only a victory for LGBT+ people in Trinidad & Tobago but another powerful affirmation that laws criminalising private, consensual same-sex intimacy have no place in a society with due respect for fundamental rights and freedoms,’
In their judgment, the Privy Council ruled that the ‘buggery’ and ‘serious indecency’ laws violated the rights to private life, dignity, equality before the law and freedom of thought and expression, relying on a succession of recent court decisions in the Caribbean that have struck down similar laws, including in Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, St Kitts & Nevis, Barbados, Dominica and Saint Lucia.
In referring to these cases, all of which decriminalised consensual same-sex intimacy, the Court said, ‘the trend is clear’.
Consensual same-sex intimacy was originally criminalised in Trinidad & Tobago under provisions imposed by the British during the colonial period. These were then included in the country’s 1986 Sexual Offences Act as ‘buggery’ and ‘serious indecency’.
In 2018, the High Court in Trinidad found those provisions unconstitutional, but the Court of Appeal later restored criminalisation in a split decision. The Court of Appeal judgment subsequently came before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, UK in July 2026.
Trinidad was one of a very small number of countries in the Caribbean that still retained these laws, as almost all countries have already decriminalised through their own courts. Only Jamaica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Guyana now maintain criminalisation. This issue continues to be litigated in domestic courts.
‘We pay tribute to the LGBT+ community in Trinidad and Tobago for their resilience, and we congratulate the litigant, Jason Jones. This decision affirms the inherent dignity of LGBT+ people living in Trinidad and Tobago,’ Ms Braun said.
Notes to editors
- Read the judgment from The Attorney General of Trinidad & Tobago and others v Jason Jones on HDT’s library of resources
- Visit the Human Dignity Trust’s interactive map to see which countries across the world continue to criminalise LGBT people
- The Human Dignity Trust works with local partners around the world to defend human rights in countries where private, consensual, same-sex sexual activity is criminalised. We provide free technical assistance to LGBT+ activists, civil society organisations, lawyers and governments wishing to challenge and reform laws that persecute people on the basis of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity
For more information and to arrange interviews contact:
Emma Eastwood – Head of Strategic Communications, Human Dignity Trust
T: +44 (0)20 7419 3770
