The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has ruled unanimously that Trinidad and Tobago's law criminalising private, consensual sex between adults of the same sex is unconstitutional. The London court delivered its judgment on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, ending a legal battle brought by activist Jason Jones that began in the islands' High Court nearly a decade ago.

The ruling concerns sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act 1986, which made "buggery" and "serious indecency" criminal offences carrying prison terms of up to five years and two years respectively. Giving the judgment, Lord Sales said the laws "cannot be regarded as reasonably justifiable in a society that has a proper respect for the rights and freedoms of the individual," according to CNN.

A nine-year legal battle

Jones, a Trinidad-born activist who lives in the United Kingdom, first challenged the law in the High Court of Trinidad and Tobago in February 2017. Justice Devindra Rampersad ruled in his favour in April 2018, declaring the two sections unconstitutional so far as they criminalised consensual sexual conduct between adults. The Court of Appeal overturned that decision on 25 March 2025, and Jones took the case to the Privy Council, the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago.

The five-member panel — Lord Reed, Lord Sales, Lord Briggs, Lord Burrows and Lady Rose — allowed Jones's appeal and dismissed the Attorney General's cross-appeal. Its judgment, [2026] UKPC 38, held that the 1986 provisions were not shielded by the savings clause in the constitution, which protects laws in force before independence in 1976, because the 1986 Act repealed and replaced the colonial-era 1925 law with new, tougher measures. As Reuters reported, the court found it unconstitutional for the law to criminalise "private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex".

What the ruling does — and does not — settle

The Board has not yet made its final order. It invited further written submissions on the remedy, and its provisional view was to uphold the narrower relief granted by the High Court in 2018 rather than ordering the wholesale deletion of both sections. The constitutional question, however, is decided: the provisions must be read so that they do not criminalise private, consensual same-sex relations between adults.

The case turns on laws with roots in England's Buggery Act of the 1500s, a version of which Britain applied in Trinidad and Tobago through a 1925 act. After independence the ban stayed in place, protected by the savings clause, and the 1986 Act increased the penalties. Jones's lawyers argued that the 1986 measures were Trinidad and Tobago's own law, not a colonial inheritance, and the Privy Council agreed that the criminalisation of private acts between consenting adults was not immune from challenge. "This is no longer blaming Henry VIII and the British. This is our own homegrown homophobia," Jones told CNN.

Reaction across the Caribbean

The Human Dignity Trust welcomed the ruling. Its chief executive, Téa Braun, said it was "not only a victory for LGBT+ people in Trinidad and Tobago but another powerful affirmation that laws criminalizing private, consensual same-sex intimacy have no place in a society with due respect for fundamental rights and freedoms."

The judgment applies to Trinidad and Tobago only, but activists say it could open the way to similar challenges elsewhere. At least four other former British colonies in the Caribbean — Jamaica, Guyana, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines — still criminalise sexual activity between men, according to the Human Dignity Trust, though not all of them use the Privy Council as their final court of appeal. Five countries — Belize, Guyana, Barbados, Saint Lucia and Dominica — have already replaced the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Frequently asked questions

Who brought the case? Jason Jones, a Trinidad-born LGBTQ+ rights activist living in the UK, who first challenged sections 13 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act 1986 in the Trinidad and Tobago High Court in 2017.

What did the Privy Council decide? Unanimously, that the two sections infringe the constitutional right to respect for private and family life and cannot constitutionally be applied to private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex.

Does the ruling apply anywhere else? No. It is binding in Trinidad and Tobago only, although campaigners in other former colonies that still use the Privy Council may rely on its reasoning in their own challenges.