GOVERNMENT HAS turned its back on a recommendation by a joint select committee to consider decriminalising anal sex between consenting adults.
Colin Campbell, Information Minister, said the issue has not been considered by the Cabinet and there are no plans to put it up for discussion.
"It is not an issue. We will not be considering the issue of homosexuality," an emphatic Mr. Campbell told journalists at yesterday's post-Cabinet press briefing held at Jamaica House.
The recommendation is contained in the report of the joint select committee on the Charter of Rights Bill, tabled in Parliament late last year.
Pressed on the reason for the Government's refusal to consider the recommendation, Mr. Campbell said, "it does not arise". He said while the issue was raised in the report of the joint select committee, it is not included in the draft Charter of Rights Bill, which was the focus of Cabinet deliberations.
Yesterday Cabinet approved the joint select committee's report after considering six issues. These are: Who will be bound by the Charter; The right to life, liberty and security of the person; Rights of the child; Right to trial by jury; Protection of property rights; and International human rights instruments.
The approval means that debate on the report will begin in Parliament shortly.
In its report, the joint select committee recommended the Government consider amending the Offences Against the Persons Act to pave the way for decriminalisation.
At the same time, the committee, which was chaired by Attorney-General and Justice Minister A. J. Nicholson, shot down requests from lobbyists in the homosexual community to include a guarantee in the Constitution that would protect homosexuals from discrimination.
"It (the committee) would, however, bring to the attention of the Government as a matter for consideration, the issue of the repeal of the Offences Against the Persons Act in so far as it relates to the offence of buggery between consenting adults in private," said the report.
Under the Offences Against the Persons Act, a person who commits buggery shall be liable to be imprisoned and kept to hard labour for a term not exceeding 10 years.
The Government's refusal to consider the proposal, spells a setback to gay rights activists who have been pushing for a repeal of the buggery law as it relates to anal sex between consenting adults. They have long held that it is this law which forms the essence of discrimination against homosexuals, particularly male homosexuals.
