Major LGBTQ victories in Europe and the Caribbean
mambaonline.comTwo recent court rulings have dramatically advanced the human rights of LGBTQ+ people in Central Europe and the Caribbean. On 5 July, the High Court of Justice for the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda struck down the discriminatory legal provisions that criminalised same-sex relations.
The court found that these laws violated the right to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy, and protection from discrimination.
Antigua and Barbuda’s Sexual Offences Act of 1995 criminalised “buggery,” defined as “sexual intercourse per anum by a male person with a male person or by a male person with a female person,” with up to 15 years in prison.
The act also penalised “serious indecency,” defined as “an act, other than sexual intercourse (whether natural or unnatural), by a person involving the use of genital organ for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire,” with up to five years’ imprisonment. “Serious indecency” explicitly excluded heterosexual sex. “The High Court’s landmark ruling is a beacon for LGBT people in Antigua and Barbuda and other Caribbean nations, whose rights and freedoms have been stymied by these punitive laws,” said Cristian González Cabrera, LGBT rights researcher at Human Rights Watch.
