DOMINICA (Commonwealth Union)_Both the HIV Legal Network and Minority Rights Dominica (MiRiDom) express continued optimism that the country’s High Court of Justice would follow Antigua and Barbuda and St. Kitts and Nevis in removing laws that criminalize LGBT individuals in the Caribbean.
A homosexual man is arguing before the High Court that two provisions of the Sexual Offences Act (SOA), which penalize consenting same-sex behavior, are unconstitutional. Together with the claimant, MiRiDom and the HIV Legal Network are supporting the case to end the criminalization of LGBT individuals in Dominica.
In a statement, the groups said that Sections 14 and 16 of the SOA, which were first passed in 1873 when Dominica was a British colony, forbade sexual behavior between consensual partners of the same sex. They claimed that because the plaintiff was gay, he had experienced horrendous violence, hatred, and prejudice in Dominica. They said that Dominica’s 1978 Constitution upholds freedoms such as the right to privacy, immunity from discrimination, liberty, and personal security, as well as the freedoms of expression, assembly, and association.
The claimant was also mentioned in the statement as claiming that because of his sexual orientation, he has experienced violence, threats, harassment, and discrimination.
“The rules that make buggery and gross indecency illegal give the perpetrators of such crimes a feeling of security and safety. These laws not only themselves discriminate against LGBT people, but they also promote and inspire nasty and violent behavior against them,” they claimed.
The laws are also detrimental to public health since they aggravate the HIV epidemic and support police inactivity and discrimination. “These laws must be overturned,” they added.
The continuous criminalization of consensual sex by LGBT groups through Sections 14 and 16 of the SOA and other injustices against LGBT Dominicans, according to the MiRiDom and the HIV Legal Network, have harmed far too many lives. These are the lives of Dominicans who identify as LGBT as well as the family members and friends of individuals who have lost loved ones to homophobic violence or who have been forced to seek asylum abroad due to persecution.
“I wish to make a change that will allow the generations following me to live a better life as a gay person than what I have experienced,” the claimant, who initiated this challenge, stated.
We are hopeful that the court will see fit to implement this crucial adjustment in support of universal human rights, they continued.
The elements of the colonial-era Offenses against the Person Act that were determined to be in violation of the nation’s constitution were welcomed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) earlier this month. The IACHR also stated that the region’s greater protection of LGBT people’s human rights is in line with inter-American standards and has been made possible by the transformative impact of judicial decision-making in the Caribbean.
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