Gay Travel Advisory

St Vincent & the Grenadines

Criminal Code from 1990

Legal Code Text

Section 146 - “Any person who commits buggery with any other person; [...] or permits any person to commit buggery with him or her; is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for ten years.”

Section 148 - “Any person, who in public or private, commits an act of gross indecency with another person of the same sex, or procures or attempts to procure another person of the same sex to commit an act of gross indecency with him or her, is guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for five years.”

ILGA Analysis & Notes

At its 1st cycle UPR in May 2011, the State rejected 11 recommendations to lift discriminatory laws and practices, including the repeal of Section 146 (in line with the Human Rights Committee Concluding Observations in 2008). In response, the State said that its current legislation was supported by society and there was no call to repeal it, “[in] n the context of the moral, societal and cultural make-up of the State”. In this vein, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines compared its own legal situation to that of the United Kingdom arguing that it had taken “hundreds of years” for the UK to repeal similar legislation, and “the harsh nature of the sentences imposed under British law,” comparing them to the “relatively short period of time that Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has been an independent state, and the less punitive sanctions involved” (para. 29). In its 2nd cycle UPR, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines once again rejected all SOGI-related recommendations. During the interactive dialogue, the delegation indicated that criminalising provisions “had existed for a long time and that the precepts underlying them had overwhelming public support in the country’s Christian society espousing Judaeo-Christian values in the Caribbean context”. However, changes in those values were acknowledged as “occurring, particularly among sections of young people”. The delegation went on to stress that “there had been no imprisonments” based on the criminalising provisions, but at the same time, as it did in its 1st cycle, insisted on the fact that there was “no public or legislative appetite to revise any of [these] laws” (para. 44). In 2015, the CEDAW Committee noted that women in same-sex relationships are not covered by the 2015 Domestic Violence Act, and recommended this exclusion be rectified. As a member of the General Assembly of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines has joined the resolutions on Human Rights, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity and Expression adopted by this body since 2008 (see all OAS-GA Resolutions since 2008). In 2013, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, along with Dominica and San Kitts and Nevis, inserted a footnote stating that the delegations of these three countries were “unable to join consensus on the approval of this resolution” (fn. 2). The Government further stated that “the term ‘gender expression’ is one that is not thoroughly defined internationally or that has international acceptance” and suggested that the discourse at the OAS “should be confined only to language which has been recognized or approved by the United Nations”. In 2016, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines withdrew from the list of countries inserting footnotes. Further, at the OAS General Assembly in June 2016, Minister of Economic Planning and Sustainable Development of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Camillo Gonsalves, described the Orlando shooting as a “tragic and heinous event” and said that his country offered its “support in ridding the world of hate and the tools of hate”. In 2015, opposition Senator Vynnette Frederick stated that Saint Vincent needed to discuss the issues of same-sex relationships and that she was well positioned to lead the discussion because of her perceived sexuality. In 2010, Prime Minister Ralph Golsalves, made disparaging comments about her, suggesting she was a lesbian. Based on those remarks, Senator Vynette Frederick brought a claim against the Prime Minister and stated that those comments had negatively impacted her performance at the elections. The 2015 Kaleidoscope Trust’s report illustrates a socio-political environment that appears to be improving incrementally, as discussions about what impedes full citizenship in a discriminatory environment take place. The 2016 US Department of State Human Rights Report indicates that anecdotal evidence suggested there was social discrimination against LGBTI persons, although local observers believed such attitudes of intolerance were slowly improving. Still, members of professional and business classes were more inclined to conceal their LGBTI sexual orientation.

Sections 76, 77 and 79 of the Offences Against the Person Act (1864) remain in force. A constitutional challenge proceeded to a separate trial on its merits in 2023, accompanied by organised religious-group demonstrations against the case.