Britain's Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is the highest appellate authority for certain territories and former territories of Great Britain, including the Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago. In Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago v. Jones, (UK PC, Nov. 10, 2026), the Privy Council held that Trinidad and Tobago's criminalization of "buggery", i.e. anal intercourse, and its criminalization of similar conduct as acts of "serious indecency", violate fundamental rights protections of Trinidad and Tobago's Constitution. Trinidad and Tobago's High Court had reached a similar conclusion, and as a remedy modified the statutory ban so that it would not apply to consensual activity between adults and also reduced the maximum penalties to imprisonment for 5 years. The challenged legislation had imposed penalties ranging from 5 years to life in prison. The Privy Council provisionally adopted this remedy but gave the parties the opportunity to file further arguments on this point.
The Privy Council also posted a Press Summary of the decision. Links to pleadings in the case and to videos of the oral arguments are available here.
