December 13, 2022

Barbados Court Strikes Down ‘Buggery’ And ‘Indecency’ Laws

By Newsroom

The High Court in Barbados has struck down colonial-era laws that criminalize gay sex, becoming the third nation in the region to do so this year. 

Sections 9 and 12 of the Barbados Sexual Offences Act, also known as the “buggery” and “indecency” laws, were remnants of the British colonial era and criminalised consensual same-sex intimacy.

Under Section 9, punishment for breaking the law could be as severe as life imprisonment for men who engaged in same-sex sexual activity.

Under Section 12, both men and women were criminalised and liable to imprisonment of up to 10 years.

Téa Braun, Chief Executive of the Human Dignity Trust, an international human rights organisation, said, ‘This is a resounding victory for LGBT people in Barbados, which is the third country in the region to decriminalise through the courts this year. The Trust is immensely proud to have provided technical assistance to these cases since 2015, and we heartily congratulate the whole team, especially the local litigants and lawyers who have doggedly pursued justice in the many years leading up to this momentous day.’

Barbados was one of only seven remaining criminalising countries in the Western Hemisphere, including Trinidad and Tobago, after the courts of both Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis struck down similar laws earlier this year.

 

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