The Barbados High Court has overturned the island nation’s prohibition on same-sex relationships in a historic decision.
After determining that two provisions of the Sexual Offences Act that criminalised “buggery” and “severe indecency” were unconstitutional, the court issued an oral judgement on Monday abolishing those portions.
Men who engage in same-sex sexual behaviour may be sentenced to life in prison under section 9 of the act. Both men and women were considered criminals under section 12 and might get up to 10 years in prison.
With the assistance of the groups Equals Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality, two LGBT advocates from Barbados filed the lawsuit (ECADE).
ECADE noted that the verdict “consolidates the rights of all Barbadians to privacy and freedom of speech, and effects LGBTQ+ individuals across the eastern Caribbean.”
A written judgement that will be delivered in January is anticipated to contain specifics of the decision.
UNAIDS praised the ruling, stating that “rules that penalise consensual same-sex relationships… maintain stigma and discrimination against LGBT people and prevent LGBT individuals from accessing and receiving healthcare for fear of being fined or jailed.” “Decriminalization saves and transforms lives and produces stronger society,” it continued.
The Barbados court “did the right thing,” according to Cristian González Cabrera, a researcher with Human Rights Watch’s LGBT Rights Programme. He urged other countries to “respect people’s right to private and strike down discriminatory intimacy legislation.”
“criminalising same-sex intimacy violates international norms and standards, including the human rights to privacy and to be protected against arbitrary and unlawful interference with, or attacks on, one’s private and family life and one’s reputation or dignity,” Cabrera added.
Following court decisions in Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis decriminalising homosexuality this year, Barbados became the third Caribbean country to do so.
All six of the former British colonies in the Caribbean still forbid consenting individuals from having gay sex. They are Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines.
