B.G v The Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Dominica and others Case Digest

In April 2024, the High Court of Dominica struck down laws that criminalised same-sex intimacy finding Sections 14 and 16 of the Sexual Offences Act 1998 unconstitutional because they violate freedom of expression, the right to liberty and the right to personal privacy. 

The judgment strikes down discriminatory laws originally inherited from the British during colonial times and which were retained following independence. The laws were further enhanced through legislation introduced in 1998. The punishment for breaking these laws was up to twelve years imprisonment. 

This decision is the culmination of an almost five-year legal case, which was originally filed in 2019, by a gay man who was challenging provisions of the Sexual Offences Act for their violation of his constitutional rights to private, consensual same-sex sexual activity. 

Read the Case Digest