Caribbean Court of Justice Grants Leave to Bring Challenge to Immigration Legislation Prohibiting Entry of Homosexuals into Belize and Trinidad & Tobago (May 8, 2014) [1]
On May 8, 2014, the Caribbean Court of Justice (the Court) granted [3] special leave to commence proceedings pursuant to Article 222of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas [4] in the case of Tomlinson v. Belize and Trinidad & Tobago. According to the press release [5], the application “challenges the provisions of the Immigration Acts of Belize and Trinidad & Tobago which prohibit the entry of homosexuals into the jurisdiction.” In holding that Mr. Tomlinson, a Jamaican national, satisfied the requirement of establishing prejudice under Article 222(b), the Court found, according to the executive summary [6], that “there is an arguable case that the mere existence of the legislative provisions in question amounts to prejudice, as demonstrated by the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Committee.”