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Privy Council Restores Decriminalisation of Same-Sex Intimacy in Trinidad and Tobago
By Maya Wilson
Maya Wilson
The Library Media’s World Desk lead and intelligence lead.
Trinidad and Tobago’s final court of appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, unanimously ruled Tuesday in favor of activist Jason Jones, overturning a 2025 decision that had recriminalised consensual anal sex and restoring the effect of his earlier constitutional victory.
All five judges ruled for Jones, according to The Guardian and the BBC. The Guardian reported that sections 13 and 16 of Trinidad and Tobago’s Sexual Offences Act 1986 must now be interpreted consistently with the country’s constitution so they do not criminalise private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex.
The BBC reported that the ruling is the first time the Privy Council has decided a case concerning the decriminalisation of same-sex intimacy.
In its judgment, the court said: “The ability to form a deep connection with another person through an intimate and loving relationship is a vital interest for all human beings.”
Lord Sales, delivering the judgment, said the laws at issue “cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of an individual,” according to the BBC. The court also found the provisions were incompatible with the “fundamental individual right to respect for private and family life,” the BBC reported.
Jones, 62, is a dual citizen who has lived in London for several decades. His legal challenge first succeeded in 2018, when High Court judge Devindra Rampersad ruled the colonial-era provisions unconstitutional. The government later appealed and won in 2025, reversing that outcome. Tuesday’s Privy Council ruling restores the legal effect of Jones’s earlier victory.
The case turned in part on Trinidad and Tobago’s constitutional “savings law clauses.” According to the BBC, the Attorney General argued that the laws were shielded from constitutional challenge because they had been carried over from British law. Jones’s legal team argued that amendments made in 1986, which increased the punishments attached to the provisions, removed that protection.
Jones said the ruling could have consequences well beyond Trinidad and Tobago.
“This judgment will have a domino effect across every country that has the privy council as its supreme court. It will change many millions of people’s lives,” he said.
“These laws never reflected who we are as a people and a nation – diverse, multiracial, and secular,” Jones said. “They told LGBTQ+ people that we were criminals in our own country. That message ends today.”
He said he hoped the ruling would “accelerate the fight for full equality,” according to the BBC.
Asked by The Guardian whether he would now feel comfortable living in Trinidad again, Jones said no, saying he expected pushback. “I’m not afraid of pushback,” he said. The Guardian reported that Jones viewed resistance as an expected part of advancing the campaign.
His lawyers at Freedom Law Chambers said: “The judgment recognises the human reality at the heart of the case.”
“It expressly recognised that a loving relationship between two men engages the constitutional protection of family life,” the firm said.
Anand Ramlogan SC, representing Jones, called the judgment a “landmark victory for gay rights, equal dignity and respect for private and family life in Trinidad and Tobago,” according to the BBC. The Guardian reported that Jones’s legal team described the outcome as a “phenomenal victory.”
Trinidad and Tobago had been one of about 34 Commonwealth countries still criminalising homosexuality under laws rooted in the British colonial era, according to the BBC. The Guardian reported that the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court struck down similar laws in St Lucia last year.
Because the Privy Council remains the final court of appeal for several Commonwealth countries, campaigners expect the ruling to inform or encourage further legal challenges elsewhere, according to both the BBC and The Guardian.
— Maya Wilson, World Desk
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