The Privy Council has struck down Trinidad and Tobago’s laws criminalising consensual sex between men, ruling unanimously on Tuesday that they breach the country’s constitution.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the twin-island nation’s final court of appeal, allowed the appeal of activist Jason Jones and dismissed the cross-appeal brought by the Attorney General. Five justices sat on the case, with Lord Sales and Lord Burrows delivering the judgment.
At issue were sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act 1986, which prohibited “buggery” and “serious indecency” and carried maximum sentences of 25 years and five years respectively. The Board held that the provisions were not protected by the constitution’s savings clause for pre-independence laws, because the 1986 Act materially changed the colonial-era 1925 ordinance it replaced and so counted as new law.
The judges also found that the ban could not be justified under the constitution’s test of what is reasonable in a society that respects individual rights. Delivering the judgment, Lord Sales said: “The current understanding of the fundamental individual right to respect for private and family life is that it protects such a core part of human identity as one’s sexual orientation.” He added: “Laws which seek to criminalise such activities cannot be justified.”
Jones, who was born in Trinidad and Tobago, began proceedings in February 2017. The High Court ruled in his favour in April 2018, when Justice Devindra Rampersad found the provisions unconstitutional. That decision was overturned by the Court of Appeal in March 2025, which reinstated the ban while cutting the maximum penalty to five years. The Privy Council heard the appeal in London on 8 July.
The Board has invited further submissions on the precise remedial order and has provisionally indicated that it favours the remedy granted by Justice Rampersad, which would modify the legislation to exempt consenting adults regardless of sexual orientation. The ruling does not alter the law on non-consensual sexual offences or offences against children, and it says nothing about marriage.
Trinidad and Tobago became a republic in 1976 but retained the Privy Council as its highest court. The decision is the latest in a series of judgments across the Caribbean rolling back colonial-era laws on same-sex intimacy, and campaigners said it would be closely watched in other countries where similar provisions remain on the books.
Sources: Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (https://jcpc.uk/cases/jcpc-2025-0095); Trinidad Guardian via Trinidad Tribune (https://trinidadtribune.com/privy-council-rejects-criminalisation-of-consensual-gay-sex/); Attitude (https://www.attitude.co.uk/news/trinidad-and-tobagos-law-criminalising-gay-sex-overturned-539539/); CANA News (https://www.cananews.com/urgent-privy-council-rules-in-favour-of-gay-man-who-challenged-trinidad-and-tobago-buggery-laws/).
