U.N. members to Grenada: Repeal anti-gay law

Discrimination against LGBTI people in Grenada came under fire from abroad as part of the past year’s United Nations review of countries’ human rights records.

The past year’s reviews focused on dozens of countries as part of the U.N.’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, which eventually scrutinizes each country’s human rights record in turn. This article is one of several about the recent UPR process for seven countries with anti-LGBTI laws .

The excerpts below focus on human rights for LGBTI people in Grenada:

Recommendations to Grenada

Many countries urged Grenada to repeal its law criminalizing sexual activity between consenting adults and to adopt a law against discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Such advice came from Chile,  Argentina, Australia, Canada, Brazil, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uruguay.

The response from Grenada

Grenada reported that the issue of discrimination against LGBTI persons was being “considered within the context of the ongoing process of constitutional reform and had been raised in several of the public consultations held throughout Grenada.” It stated:

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“Within the democratic process, it was obvious that there was not much support for that issue nationally. It should be noted, however, that apart from the recommendations on constitutional reform made by the Committee to the Government, the Committee had recommended that ordinary legislation be passed with regard to ‘protection against discrimination at workplaces based only on sexual orientation.”

Apparently Grenada did not even consider dropping its law against same-sex intimacy, which provides for a 10-year prison sentence for men who are “guilty of unnatural connexion.”

For more information, read:

• The statement of the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights “Combatting discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”
• The High Commissioner’s report to the Human Rights Council on discrimination and violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity (May 2015)  (Summary or full report)
• An analysis by ARC International of recent proceedings at the Human Rights Council titled “Denying the Rights of persons based on sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status is challenging the universality of human rights”
• Excerpts of outcomes of the 21th UPR session compiled by the U.N. Committee on Conferences.

Related articles from this blog:

• Does the Anglo Caribbean need Bahamas Pride?
• Working toward a Caribbean that’s no longer anti-gay
• LGBT rights in the Caribbean: Talk with no action
• Panel will focus on anti-LGBT laws in the Caribbean