Overview

• The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court ruled on July 29 that Saint Lucia’s buggery and gross indecency provisions, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, violate constitutional guarantees of privacy and equality.
• This judgment follows similar rulings in Barbados, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Kitts and Nevis in 2022 and Dominica in 2024, extending decriminalization across the Eastern Caribbean.
• Raise Your Voice St. Lucia and the Eastern Caribbean Alliance for Diversity and Equality praised the ruling for advancing legal protections for LGBTQ+ people.
• Only five Caribbean nations—Jamaica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, which reversed decriminalization in March—still criminalize consensual same-sex relations.
• Activists and legal experts warn that remaining colonial-era statutes, though infrequently enforced, perpetuate discrimination and violence, underscoring calls for legislative reform.