U.N. agency bashes St. Vincent court ruling. Expect more rulings soon
‘Such laws hinder efforts to protect public health’
COMMENTARY
The United Nations anti-AIDS agency (UNAIDS) has condemned last month’s High Court ruling that upheld the buggery law of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, which the court supported as a supposed public health measure aimed at controlling HIV/AIDS.
UNAIDS called the ruling discriminatory and harmful, pointing out that such anti-LGBTQ laws hinder rather than help the fight against HIV/AIDS:
“UNAIDS is particularly concerned that the judgment referred to protecting public health and tackling the HIV epidemic as justifying punitive anti-LGTBQ laws, because the evidence shows that such laws hinder efforts to protect public health and tackle the HIV epidemic.”
The ruling has finally been published online in full, and it’s honestly just 91 pages of bullshit. While there were some clear deficiencies in the claimants’ cases (they needed to have a better response to the fact that neither was a resident of St. Vincent at the time of their claim), the judge simply dismisses every example they provide of the discrimination they suffer, waives consideration of every comparable ruling on sodomy laws in other jurisdictions, St. Vincent’s clear international rights obligations, and grants every hateful and bigoted assertion made by the government in its submissions. There ought to be plenty of grounds for appeal here.
The same court is meant to deliver rulings for Dominica, St. Lucia, and Grenada any day now.
This commentary is based on an article in the daily LGBT Global Newsletter, which is published by Rob Salerno, an editor at Erasing 76 Crimes. You can read and subscribe to the newsletter for free here.
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