The Jamaican government is responsible for violating the rights of two gays and the country’s homophobic laws must be repealed immediately, according to a decision by an international human rights court.
The decision of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights sets a precedent for LGBT rights in the Caribbean and is the commission’s first finding that laws that criminalize LGBT people violate international law.
The two Jamaicans who opened the case, Gareth Henry and Simone Edwards, argued that the laws against “sodomy” and gross indecency – originally imposed by the British colonial administration – violate their rights and legitimize violence against the LGBT community in Jamaica. Both were forced to flee Jamaica after violent attacks.
In its decision, which was rendered in September 2019, but could not be reported before, the commission said Jamaica was responsible for the violation of multiple plaintiffs’ rights, including rights to personal integrity, equal protection under the law, privacy and freedom of movement and residence.
Téa Braun, the director of the Human Dignity Trust, which represented Henry and Edwards, said it was a huge victory. “It is a highly significant step that must now accelerate the repeal of these stigmatizing and discriminatory laws,” she said.
Henry, who applied for asylum in Canada after being beaten by a police officer in front of a crowd of 200, said he hoped the commission’s “bold and principled” decision would signal the start of a significant change in Jamaica.
“All my life people have told me that who I am and who I love is wrong. Now, for the first time, I finally feel like I’m right, ”he said.
He told the Guardian in 2012 that during a four-year term as head of the Jamaican LGBT organization J-Flag, 13 of his friends were murdered. The organization was also a party to the case.
Edwards was shot several times outside his home in 2008 by two men belonging to a homophobic gang, who also tried to kill two of his brothers, one of whom is also gay. After a series of failures by the police to protect her and her family, she was granted asylum in Europe.
She said it was a real boost to see the commission take the complaint seriously. “It gives me hope that one day these outdated laws will end and I will be able to return to my homeland without fear of an attack,” she said.
The commission urged the Jamaican government to repeal sections of the 1864 Offenses Against the Person Act that criminalize consensual sexual conduct among men and recommended the enactment of anti-discrimination laws to protect LGBT people. He also advised training for police and security forces, who have long been complicit in or perpetrators of violence and harassment against Jamaican LGBT people.
The decisions of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights are not binding, but its firmly formulated recommendations will give hope to LGBT communities in the nine Caribbean countries that still have colonial-era laws that criminalize same-sex intimacy in their books.