Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality, 2024
Year: 2024
DOI:
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LGBTQ+ Persons and Caribbean Constitutions: The Battle of Saving Vs Abolishing
Jill St George
ABSTRACT:
This paper charts the overdue jurisprudential jettison of the offences of buggery and serious indecency in the Commonwealth Caribbean, exploring how the courts have sought to defeat the operation of Constitutional savings clauses to declare such offences unconstitutional. Savings clauses were included in all Commonwealth Caribbean Constitutions upon independence, and they have operated to protect discriminatory colonial-era legislation from challenge. The recent Barbadian case of Holder-McClean-Ramirez et al v Attorney General of Barbados [2022] HC 44/220 demonstrates one of many ways in which the courts are circumventing such clauses to enable judicial recognition of the fundamental rights and freedoms of LGBTQ+ persons.
keywords: Buggery; Serious Indecency; Caribbean Constitutions; Savings Clauses