Jamaica told: Repeal buggery laws
One Caribbean Nation. Jamaica told: Repeal buggery laws KINGSTON – The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) has ruled that the Government of Jamaica should immediately repeal the country’s buggery laws. The ruling that has been deemed historic also said that the Andrew Holnessled administration is responsible for violating the rights of two gay people. The ruling, that was handed down in September 2019, but had to be kept confidential until Wednesday – sets a precedent for lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender (LGBT) rights across the Caribbean and is the commission’s first finding that laws that criminalise LGBT people violate international law. While decisions from the IACHR are not binding, it is widely believed that the recommendations will give hope to LGBT communities in the nine Caribbean countries that still have colonial-era laws criminalising same-sex intimacy on their books. The two Jamaicans who brought the case – Gareth Henry and Simone Edwards – convinced ...