The Privy Council has overturned the ruling that kept Trinidad and Tobago’s ban on gay sex in place. The London-based court, the country’s top court of appeal, unanimously sided with activist Jason Jones on November 10, 2026 C.E. It is the last appeal in a legal fight that began in 2018.
At a glance
- Court ruling: The Privy Council unanimously allowed Jones’s appeal and dismissed the Attorney General’s cross-appeal.
- Laws affected: Sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act of 1986 criminalize private, consensual sexual activity between adults of the same sex.
- Next step: The court has not issued its final order. It has asked for written arguments on how the laws must change to fit the Constitution.
What the court decided
The five judges held that the laws are not protected as “existing law” under section 6 of the Constitution. They were new laws passed after the Constitution took effect, the court found. The Court of Appeal was wrong to treat them as saved.
The court also rejected the Attorney General’s argument that the laws were reasonably justifiable. It said that question is judged when the claim is heard, not in 1986. According to the judgment, the Attorney General offered no evidence that keeping the laws was justified.
The main right at stake is respect for private and family life, under section 4 of the Constitution. The court found that the laws interfere with the core of that right. The Privy Council’s press summary says Lord Sales and Lord Burrows gave the judgment.
How the case reached the Privy Council
Justice Devindra Rampersad of the High Court struck down the laws in April 2018. The case was brought by Jones, a Trinidad-born advocate who lives in the United Kingdom. In March 2025, the Court of Appeal reversed that ruling by a majority, according to Global Voices.
The appeal judges held that the laws were “saved law,” a term for colonial-era rules carried into the post-independence legal system. Jones then appealed to the Privy Council, which heard the case in July. Jones has said, “Humanity cannot be judged by the majority,” according to Global Voices.
The Attorney General was one of three respondents. The Equal Opportunity Commission and the Trinidad and Tobago Council of Evangelical Churches were the others. Groups from across the Caribbean, including Colours Caribbean, OutBermuda, and the United Belize Advocacy Movement, took part as interveners.
Why the ban on gay sex matters
The Privy Council is the highest appeals court for some of the United Kingdom’s former colonies. Its reasoning covers how a savings clause treats old laws and how courts judge whether a law is justifiable. The Human Dignity Trust keeps a country profile with the case’s history.
The ruling turns on the right to private life. The court described the laws as criminalizing private, consensual activity between adults. That is the activity Jones set out to protect in 2018.
What the ruling does not settle
The court has not made its final order. It has invited more written submissions on what changes the laws need. Its provisional view is that Rampersad’s 2018 order should be upheld.
That order makes clear that the laws do not criminalize consensual conduct between adults. Jones’s lawyers had asked for the provisions to be deleted, but the court said that route did not appear open. How overlapping offenses such as buggery and rape are handled is a job for Parliament.
The court also left open a new argument from Jones that amendments in 2000 and 2012 removed any protection the laws had. It did not need to decide it. The final order, and what Parliament does next, will decide how much changes in practice.
Read more
For more on this story, see: Privy Council press summary
For more from Good News for Humankind, see:
- Nepal swears in its first openly transgender member of parliament
- Molly Cook just became the first out LGBTQ+ person elected to the Texas Senate
- The Good News for Humankind archive on LGBTQ+ rights
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