{"id":64,"area":"Latin America & Caribbean","region_name":"Dominica","iso_2":"DM","region_sub":null,"legal_code_title":"Sexual Offences Act from 1998","legal_code_title_citation_1":"Text of the law is available at: http://www.dominica.gov.dm/laws/1998/act1-1998.pdf","legal_code_title_citation_2":"cook","legal_code_body":"Section 16(1)(b) - “A person who commits buggery is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for: [...] (b) ten years, if committed by an adult on another adult; [...] and, if the Court thinks it fit, the Court may order that the convicted person be admitted to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. Any person who attempts to commit the offence of buggery [...] is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for four years and, if the Court thinks it fit, the Court may order that the convicted person be admitted to the psychiatric hospital for treatment. In this section ‘buggery’ means sexual intercourse per annum by a male person with a male person or by a male person with a female person.”\n\nSection 14 - “Any person who commits an act of gross indecency with another person is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for five years. [...] In this section “gross indecency” is an act other than sexual intercourse (whether natural or unnatural) by a person involving the use of genital organs for the purpose of arousing or gratifying sexual desire.”","legal_code_body_citation_1":null,"legal_code_body_citation_2":null,"legal_code_body_citation_3":null,"legal_code_body_citation_4":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments":"Dominica rejected all (7) the recommendations to repeal the above-mentioned articles that it received in its 1st cycle UPR in 2010. It also rejected a series of recommendations to address discrimination in relation to HIV, engage in sensitivity training with judiciary and security forces, and to employ the Yogyakarta Principles to guide such work. In its response, Dominica conceded (para.33) that the law is “discriminatory” and that there is a “certain element of discrimination in the society”. It also stated that its 2003 HIV/AIDS strategy was inclusive “regardless... of sexual persuasion” (para. 20). \nDominica’s 2nd cycle UPR in May 2014 generated 12 strong recommendations to decriminalise and strengthen anti- discrimination provisions within the country in relation to LGBT populations. The only mention of sexual orientation during the interactive dialogue was linked to HIV: a mere reiteration of the fact that its 2003 AIDS strategy did not discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation (para. 24). No other address was given to four very strong comments made about Dominica’s duties in regards to protection of human rights defenders doing SOGI-related work. Dominica’s next UPR cycle will take place in May 2019. \nAs a member of the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Dominica has joined the resolutions on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity and Expression adopted by this body since 2008. In 2013, Dominica decided to introduce a joint footnote —together with Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and San Kitts and Nevis— stating that the delegations of these three countries were “unable to join consensus on the approval of [the] resolution” (see all OAS-GA Resolutions since 2008). Since 2014, Dominica has withdrawn from the list of countries inserting footnotes aiming to limit or reject the content of these resolutions. \nThe 2015 Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) report on violence against LGBTI persons states that the so-called “gay panic” defence (defined as the attempt to justify the killing of a person by arguing that the violence was prompted by alleged same-sex sexual advances made by the victim) has been accepted by local courts in Dominica (paras. 491, 494). \nIn 2014, Minority Rights Dominica (MiRiDom) and the Sexual Rights Initiative, submitted a report for the country’s UPR examination, indicating that human rights defender groups in Dominica “are forced to operate underground because of fear that their members will be victimised”, and “those who are openly gay complain of acts of physical abuse, and are often victims of vandalism committed against their positions, as well as being ejected from house and home”. Moreover, Kaleidoscope Trust reports that the media climate in Dominica is not particularly hostile, probably due to a lack of knowledge about SOGI-related groups and issues. For its part, the 2015 US Dept. of State Report indicates that “societal and employment discrimination against persons due to their real or perceived sexual orientation or gender identity was common in the socially conservative society.” Additionally, social stigma was identified as a cause for the low levels of crime reporting among LGBTI victims. \nIn 2016, Senator Isaac Baptiste spoke against the criminalisation of buggery in Dominica. During his contribution to the Parliamentary debate on the introduction of a Bill to amend the Sexual Offences Act, Mr. Baptiste stated that “the continued criminalization of buggery as it is now provided for, to the extent that the court can subject that person to psychiatric observation and treatment, is not consistent with what is happening internationally”.","legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_1":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_2":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_3":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_4":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_5":null,"legal_code_ilga_comments_citation_6":null,"legal_code_scruff_comments":null,"prison_term_min_length":null,"prison_term_max_length":10,"prison_term_notes":null,"prison_term_not_specified":null,"prison_term_years":true,"prison_term_life":null,"prison_term_mandatory":null,"fine_min_amount":null,"fine_max_amount":null,"fine_currency":null,"fine_notes":null,"fine_not_specified":null,"fine_amount":null,"fine_mandatory":null,"penalty_death":false,"penalty_death_notes":null,"penalty_corporal_punishment":null,"penalty_corporal_punishment_notes":null,"penalty_hard_labor":null,"penalty_hard_labor_notes":null,"penalty_banishment":null,"legal_code_explicitly_references_same_sex_acts":true,"legal_code_explicitly_references_acts_against_nature":null,"legal_code_differentiates_anal_sex_from_other_acts":true,"legal_code_indicates_hiv_as_aggravating_factor":null,"legal_code_indicates_age_of_consent_homosexual_acts_over_18":null,"existing_laws_used_to_target_gays_but_not_anti_gay":null,"islamic_sharia_law":null,"islamic_sharia_law_notes":null,"laws_subregional_variance_or_contradiction":null,"laws_subregional_variance_or_contradiction_notes":null,"laws_not_specifically_homophobic":null,"laws_status_unclear":null,"laws_status_unclear_notes":null,"persecution_non_state_agents":null,"criminalization_under_consideration":null,"recently_decriminalized":null,"propaganda_law_under_consideration":null,"propaganda_law_title":null,"propaganda_law_title_citation_1":null,"propaganda_law_body":null,"propaganda_law_body_citation_1":null,"propaganda_law_ilga_comments":null,"legal_developments_2023_2024_summary":"On 22 April 2024, in B.G. v. Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Dominica et al. (2024), the High Court declared Sections 14 (gross indecency) and 16 (buggery) of the Sexual Offences Act (1998) unconstitutional and void, ending Dominica's criminalisation of consensual same-sex acts (Dominica had previously been the only UN member state prescribing court-mandated 'conversion therapy' as a criminal penalty).","legal_developments_2023_2024_citations":"ILGA World, Laws On Us: A Global Overview of Legal Progress and Backtracking on SOGIESC, 1st Ed. (Geneva, May 2024), p.29, 60.","status_change_type":"DECRIMINALIZED"}