Jamaica anti gay
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Last updated: 17 December 2024
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 hard labour. Only men are criminalised under this law.
The Jamaican Constitution includes a ‘savings law clause’ – a constitutional provision that shields certain laws from entity challenged in the courts if they were in compel 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 existence 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 law was inherited from the British during the colonial period, in which the
Homosexuality: The countries where it is illegal to be gay
BBC News
US Vice-President Kamala Harris who is on a tour of three African countries - Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia - has drawn criticism over her support for LGBTQ rights.
In Ghana, in a speech calling for "all people be treated equally" she appeared to criticise a bill before the country's parliament which criminalises advocacy for gay rights and proposes jail terms for those that recognize as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender.
The country's Speaker Alban Bagbin later called her remarks "undemocratic" and urged lawmakers not to be "intimidated by any person".
In Tanzania, a former minister spoke against US support for LGBTQ rights ahead of the check in and in Zambia some contradiction politicians have threatened to grip protests.
Where is homosexuality still outlawed?
There are 64 countries that acquire laws that criminalise homosexuality, and nearly half of these are in Africa.
Some countries, including several in Africa, have recently moved to decriminalise same-sex unions and improve rights for LGBTQ people.
In Decemb
Gay rights support improves in Jamaica but anti-gay sentiment grows, new research suggests
Three years of intense activism and education raising in Jamaica have helped multiply support for lgbtq+ rights and shrink approval for the country’s “buggery law”, new research from Goldsmiths, University of London has found.
But while support for structural prejudice, including the threat of ten years imprisonment for consensual lesbian sex, has reduced, Dr Keon West (Department of Psychology) found that personal prejudice against LGBT individuals has increased over the alike period.
In Kingston, 2012, two male students at the University of Technology were caught engaging in sexual activity. One escaped, while the other was pursued across campus by fellow students calling for his death. Seeking refuge with security guards, the guards then turned on him and beat him themselves.
This was followed by a period of intense debate with many arguing that the gay scholar should have been killed.
But less than three years later, in August and October 2015 Jamaica’s first Pride events were held in Kingston and Montego Bay respectively. Here persons of all classes, sexualities
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 end the criminalisation of consensual, lgbtq+ intimacy.
I brought a case to the IACHR with the hope of creating the change that I want to see in Jamaica. Its decision was recognition by the international community of the progressing 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 call on the Jamaican government to act now to defend the basic human rights of its LGBT citizens,’ added Henry.
Since the IACHR’s decision was made widespread, Jamaica has failed to show interest in complying with a single recommendation made by the Commission, says HDT. To the contrary, the government last year relied on a savings clause in its constitution to prevent local courts from considering a constitutional challenge to the laws that criminalise sexual relations b