An appeals court in Trinidad and Tobago has recriminalised consensual same-sex relations in the country, reversing a landmark decision made by the High Court in 2018.

Jason Jones, an LGBTQ+ activist from Trinidad and Tobago now residing in the UK, challenged Sections 13 and 16 of the country’s Sexual Offences Act in 2017, claiming they were unconstitutional. The High Court had agreed, ruling that the laws violated the rights of LGBTQ+ individuals.

However, the move was appealed by the Attorney General, leading the Court of Appeal to reinstate the criminalisation, though with a reduced sentence of five years’ imprisonment as opposed to the original 25 years.

In response to the ruling, Jones expressed his disappointment on social media, stating, “As an LGBTQ+ citizen of Trinidad and Tobago, this regressive judgment has ripped up my contract as a citizen of T&T and again makes me an unapprehended criminal in the eyes of the law.”

He added, “The TT Court of Appeal has effectively put a target on the back of LGBTQIA+ people and made us lower-class citizens in our own country.”

He further criticised the nation’s continued adherence to colonial-era laws, writing, “We can no longer claim to be a ‘Republican’ nation when we still enshrine and protect BRITISH COLONIAL LAWS using the savings law…”

The Court of Appeal acknowledged that these laws “are not reasonably justifiable in a society that has proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual,” but argued that the country’s savings law clause prevented the laws from being invalidated.

The savings law clause, a remnant of the colonial era, protects laws predating the country’s independence from being challenged on constitutional grounds. Critics, including Outright International, have condemned the ruling, accusing the state of prioritising political expediency over human rights.

The savings law clause has been used to protect other outdated laws, such as those concerning the death penalty, and has hindered legal progress across the Caribbean. This clause is also present in the Independence Constitutions of Jamaica, Guyana, The Bahamas, Belize, and Barbados.