Jones wins 11-year legal fight, demands wider reform

Hu­man rights cam­paign­er Ja­son Jones says he has made the im­pos­si­ble pos­si­ble, fol­low­ing yes­ter­day’s land­mark Privy Coun­cil rul­ing which struck down laws crim­i­nal­is­ing con­sen­su­al same-sex re­la­tions be­tween adult men in Trinidad and To­ba­go.

The Board found that sec­tions 13 and 16 of the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act 1986 in­fringe his fun­da­men­tal rights un­der the Con­sti­tu­tion.

The Board agreed with for­mer High Court Judge and cur­rent Ap­pel­late Judge Devin­dra Ram­per­sad, who found that seg­ments of the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act 1986 that crim­i­nalised sex­u­al acts be­tween con­sent­ing males were un­con­sti­tu­tion­al.