How British colonial-era laws are hampering the fight against HIV in the Caribbean and Latin America
Hon. Justice Adrian Saunders, President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Trinidad and Tobago, and Genroy Murray from Equality for All, Jamaica, explain why this is the case: when the former British colonies were granted independence from Great Britain, a so-called ‘savings clause’ was written into their laws. This states that laws from the colonial era may not be interpreted by the courts in future as being against the (current or future) constitution of the independent state.
Patricia Gründler, Swiss AIDS Federation
Take Jamaica, for example: the constitution states - not in this wording, but that is the idea - that all people have equal rights. However, there are laws from the colonial era that declare consensual sexual relations between men (‘sodomy’) illegal. If a case reaches the highest court of appeal - the Caribbean Court of Justice - it is impossible for the judges there to declare that the British law is now unconstitutional. This is despite the fact that Jamaica's constitution has been reformed and modernised since independence.
British overseas territories such as Bermuda or the Turks and Caicos Islands, on the other hand, are not subject to the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice but of the Privy Court, which is based in London. Cases of the highest instance therefore go there. And the Privy Court regularly confirms the colonial laws - and thus the discrimination against LGBTIQ people. This naturally makes the fight against HIV more difficult. After all, it is difficult to live a liberated sexuality if you are stigmatised by so-called ‘sodomy’ laws.
Anti-queer laws from the European colonial era continue to exist in the former colonies and in European overseas territories. It's easy to call Europe ‘progressive’ in its treatment of minorities and blame ‘third world’ countries for their treatment of sexual and gender minorities when you forget who originally fuelled this discrimination.
You can read more here:
https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/lgbti-rights-the-privy-council