Privy Council rules against Trinidad and Tobago sex laws

The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council unanimously ruled in Jason Jones’s favour on November 10, finding that provisions criminalising consensual same-sex activity between adults in Trinidad and Tobago are not protected from constitutional challenge and are not reasonably justifiable. The decision allows Jones’s appeal and dismisses the Attorney General’s cross-appeal.

The case concerns sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act 1986. Section 13 addresses buggery, while section 16 covers other sexual acts. The Privy Council concluded that the provisions could not be shielded as laws preserved from constitutional scrutiny or justified under the Constitution’s provisions on legislation affecting fundamental rights.

The court’s ruling followed a legal challenge Jones began in 2017. Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court ruled in his favour in 2018, finding the provisions unconstitutional. The Court of Appeal partially reversed that decision in 2025, ruling that constitutional protections for some older laws limited the courts’ ability to strike down the restrictions. Jones appealed to the Privy Council, the country’s final court of appeal, and the Attorney General cross-appealed.