Saint Kitts and Nevis - Universal Periodic Review - LGBTIQ+ Rights - July 2025
Country: Saint Kitts and Nevis
Partners: Khaleem Ali
Issues: LGBTIQ+ Rights
Mechanism: UN Universal Periodic Review
Report Type: Stakeholder Report
This report addresses the human rights situation in St. Kitts and Nevis since 2021. While the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (“ECSC”) declared criminalization of consensual same-sex private activity unconstitutional in 2022, the Government has failed to adopt any legislation or implement any policy focused on the protection of LGBTIQ+ individuals from discrimination to date.
Due to State and non-State actors’ violence toward and discrimination against LGBTIQ+ individuals in St. Kitts and Nevis, LGBTIQ+ people who experience violations of their human rights often refrain from reporting violent or discriminatory incidents to the police. This is compounded by the fact that LGBTIQ+ topics are still perceived as taboo and against cultural norms, as a result, law enforcement agencies do not treat reports of said acts of violence against LGBTIQ+ people seriously.
In this report, we use the acronym LGBTIQ+ to refer to individuals who self-identify as
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, queer, and other sexual and gender minorities.
These terms necessarily do not include everyone who may experience violations of their
human rights on the basis of their real or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity,
gender expression, and/or sex characteristics (“SOGIESC”), which is why we also include
a “+” with the acronym. Any use of a modified acronym is intentional in that we are
speaking only about certain members of the LGBTIQ+ population.
