On lgbtq jamaica discrination
On the third anniversary of a landmark decision from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) urging the Jamaican government to repeal the country’s homophobic laws, the Human Dignity Trust (HDT) calls on Jamaica to take immediate action and finish the criminalisation of consensual, same-sex intimacy.
I brought a case to the IACHR with the optimism of creating the change that I want to spot in Jamaica. Its decision was recognition by the international community of the ongoing human rights abuses suffered by my brothers and sisters – and a call to action for Jamaica
‘This Saturday, 17 February, will mark three years since the publication of the IACHR’s report and recommendations. I ring on the Jamaican government to operate now to shield the basic human rights of its LGBT citizens,’ added Henry.
Since the IACHR’s decision was made public, Jamaica has failed to demonstrate interest in complying with a solo recommendation made by the Commission, says HDT. To the contrary, the government last year relied on a savings clause in its constitution to stop domestic courts from considering a constitutional challenge to the laws that criminalise sexual relations b
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Last updated: 30 July 2025
Types of criminalisation
- Criminalises LGBT people
- Criminalises sexual activity between males
Summary
Same-sex sexual activity is prohibited under the Offences Against the Person Act 1864, which criminalises acts of ‘buggery’ and ‘gross indecency’. This law carries a maximum penalty of ten years’ imprisonment with unyielding labour. Only men are criminalised under this law.
The Jamaican Constitution includes a ‘savings law clause’ – a constitutional provision that shields certain laws from being challenged in the courts if they were in force before the country’s adoption of its constitution. In 2011, a new bill of rights was introduced into the Constitution of Jamaica. A general savings law clause, which prevented all colonial laws from being constitutionally challenged, was removed and replaced with a savings clause that protects only specific laws, including those relating to sexual offences, from judicial scrutiny.
The statute was inherited from the
JAMAICA: ‘Laws that discriminate against LGBTQI+ people forward a signal about our place in society’
CIVICUS speaks about the situation of LGBTQI+ rights in Jamaica and the ongoing impacts of the British colonial legacy with Glenroy Murray, Executive Director of J-FLAG.
J-FLAG is a human rights and social justice organisation that advocates for the rights, livelihood and well- being of lesbian, lgbtq+, bisexual and transgender people in Jamaica.
What is the current situation of LGBTQI+ people in Jamaica?
We proceed to face challenges even as we note that there has been progress in the form of moderately increasing positive attitudes towards the community. Based on the 2019 Visibility, Attitude and Perception Survey commissioned by J-FLAG, there was a small but noticeable increase of five percentage points in tolerant and positive attitudes towards LGBTQI+ Jamaicans, from 20 to 25 per cent. A 10-year analysis of the human rights violations being reported to J-FLAG shows a decline in mob violence, arson and murder.
However, there continues to be reports of verbal harassment, threats, physical aggression and displacement of LGBTQI+ Jamaicans by their family and members o
The most homophobic place on earth
The Issue
Jamaica has always been at the core of our work.
LGBT and Jamaica flag on concrete wall
The country continues to be one of the most unsafe places in the world to be LGBTQI+. In 2006, Time magazine dubbed Jamaica “the most homophobic place on earth.”
Approximately 40 percent of our requests for help originate from the Caribbean region. Over the past two years, we have relocated nearly 300 same-sex attracted, lesbian, bisexual, genderqueer and transgender Jamaicans experiencing extreme persecution.
Reports from those experiencing persecution in Jamaica are staggering. Rainbow Railroad caseworkers frequently help individuals who have been brutally attacked, sexually harassed, assaulted, burned with acid or blaze, have received death threats or had gang violence occur in their neighbourhoods. These acts of cruelty are usually made known to the police and state, and rarely is protection offered to or justice achieved by the victims. Unfortunately, this situation is not limited to Jamaica; nine countries in the Caribbean still criminalize same-sex intimacy.
In these regions, sodomy, or “buggery,” laws criminalize same-sex connection,
Human Rights Watch: LGBT Jamaicans are targets of violence
Human Rights Watch said: "LGBT Jamaicans are vulnerable to both physical and sexual violence and many stay in constant fear.
"They are taunted, threatened, fired from their jobs, thrown out of their homes, or worse: beaten, stoned, raped, or killed."
Last year, a transgender teenager, Dwayne Jones, was killed by a crowd outside the Jamaican city of Montego Bay, but the murder remains unsolved.
In its report titled "Not Safe at Home", external, the rights community documented 56 cases of violence in which victims reported they were targeted because of their actual or perceived sexual orientation or identity.
It called on the Jamaican government to strike down anti-sodomy laws and take measures to protect LGBT Jamaicans from discrimination and violence.
"In the past decade the Jamaican police have taken some steps to address the scourge of homophobic aggression, but clearly these steps are not enough," said Graeme Reid, LGBT rights director at Human Rights Watch.
"So long as discriminatory laws remain in place, piecemeal measures will never be adequate.
"The authorities from t