Jamaica should repeal homophobic laws, rights tribunal rules

Commission finds Jamaican government responsible for violating the rights of two gay people

Maya Wolfe-Robinson
Wed 17 Feb 2021 14.28 GMT

The Jamaican government is responsible for violating the rights of two gay people and the country’s homophobic laws should be repealed immediately, according to a ruling by an international human rights tribunal.

The decision by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights sets a precedent for LGBT rights across the Caribbean and is the commission’s first finding that laws that criminalise LGBT people violate international law.

The two Jamaicans who brought the case, Gareth Henry and Simone Edwards, had argued that the laws against “buggery” and gross indecency – originally imposed by the British colonial administration – violate their rights and legitimise violence towards the LGBT community in Jamaica. Both were forced to flee Jamaica following violent attacks.

In its decision, which was handed down in September 2019 but could not be reported before now, the commission said Jamaica was responsible for the violation of multiple rights of the claimants, including the rights to humane treatment, equal protection before the law, privacy and freedom of movement and residence.

Téa Braun, the director of the Human Dignity Trust, who represented Henry and Edwards, said it was a major victory. “It is a highly significant step forward that must now accelerate the repeal of these stigmatising and discriminatory laws,” she said.

-snip-

IACHR finds Jamaica violated rights of homosexuals

Published:Thursday | February 18, 2021 | 12:22 AM

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP):

An international tribunal has found that the Jamaican Government violated the rights of a gay man and a lesbian, according to a ruling released Wednesday, and activists say it could set a precedent in a region long known for legal harassment of the LGBT community.

The ruling was issued by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in September 2019, but the commission had kept it confidential until Wednesday.

“This is now the landmark LGBT human rights case for the entire Caribbean region,” said Human Dignity Trust, a United Kingdom-based legal organisation that presented the case to the commission in 2011.

The trust represented Gareth Henry, who attorneys said is a gay man living as a refugee in Canada, and Simone Edwards, a lesbian they say was forced to flee Jamaica.

Henry sought asylum in Canada in 2008 after facing police brutality and repeated attacks by homophobic gangs, including being chased by a mob of some 200 people who were chanting that gay people must be killed, according to the trust.

-snip-