Equal Rights, Access and Opportunities SVG Inc. (“ERAO SVG”) says that it is pleased with the ruling of High Court Judge Justice Marissa Robertson in the case of Orden David et al v. Attorney General of Antigua and Barbuda.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court found that “the selection of an intimate partner is a private and a personal choice.”
The ruling also said the twin-island nation’s 1995 Sexual Offenses Act “offends the right to liberty, protection of the law, freedom of expression, protection of personal privacy and protection from discrimination on the basis of sex.”
The ruling comes after a gay man who works at Antigua’s Ministry of Health and a local group called Women Against Rape Inc. asked that the law be found unconstitutional.
ERAO SVG said that ‘this is a historic decision in not only Antigua and Barbuda but the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (“ECSC”). It is the first case, in a country where the ECSC has jurisdiction, that anti-gay laws have been declared unconstitutional.’
