Privy Council strikes down Trinidad and Tobago's colonial-era gay sex ban

The ruling

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London ruled unanimously on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, that colonial-era provisions can no longer be used to prosecute consenting adults of the same sex for private sexual relations. The panel of five judges found that the provisions breached fundamental rights to privacy and individual freedom. Trinidad and Tobago still sends its final appeals to this London body, so the decision cannot be appealed further. Under the 1986 Sexual Offences Act, people convicted of buggery faced up to five years in prison, while people convicted of gross indecency faced up to two years. The judges read two sections of that statute in line with the constitution, so they no longer penalise private relations between consenting adults of the same sex. Philip Sales, who delivered the judgment, put the court's reasoning in these words:

“Those laws cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedom of the individual.”

Buggery5

Gross indecency2

Buggery

5 years

Gross indecency

2 years

Data from the article text

Case history

Jason Jones, a dual citizen aged 62, filed the case in February 2017, arguing that the so-called buggery laws breached the country's constitution. The High Court, under judge Devindra Rampersad, found the provisions unconstitutional in April 2018. The government appealed, and in March 2025 the Court of Appeal reversed that ruling in part. Trinidad's Court of Appeal then allowed Jones to seek a ruling from the Privy Council. The Attorney General argued that savings clauses shielded the law from challenge, while Jones's representatives argued that the 1986 changes, which introduced stricter punishments, removed that protection. Opposing Jones were the government, the Council of Evangelical Churches and Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, the country's largest Hindu organization.

Reactions

Jones said in a statement that the ruling would ripple outward, and he predicted a wide effect:

“This judgment will have a domino effect across every country that has the privy council as its supreme court.”

He added that many millions of people would be affected by the decision. Jones also said he would widen his campaign against what he called endemic homophobia across the Caribbean, and he said the laws had sent LGBTQ+ people the message that they were criminals in their own country. Freedom Law Chambers, the firm acting for Jones, called the ruling a phenomenal victory for LGBTQ people. Its statement stressed that the court accepted a loving relationship between two men as falling under constitutional protection for family life. Anand Ramlogan SC, who represented Jones, described the judgment as a victory for equal dignity in the country.

Wider impact

Before the ruling, Trinidad and Tobago was one of some 34 Commonwealth countries that still criminalised homosexuality under colonial-era British laws. Under those laws, consensual same-sex intimacy is punishable by imprisonment, and in some cases carries the death penalty. This is the first time the Privy Council has decided a case to decriminalise same-sex intimacy, and campaigners hope it will prompt similar challenges elsewhere in the Commonwealth. Because the same London body hears final appeals from several other Commonwealth countries, the reasoning could reach Caribbean jurisdictions where similar laws remain in force. The government has also pushed for the Caribbean Court of Justice, based in Trinidad, to replace the Privy Council as the country's highest court.