Written question asked by Greg Pope (Labour) on Thursday, 2 July 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 6 July 2009. It was answered by Chris Bryant (Labour) on Wednesday, 8 July 2009 on behalf of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

British Overseas Territories: Discrimination

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs how many constitutions of Overseas Territories which do not prohibit discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation the Government has agreed to since 1997.

Answer: Six new Overseas Territory constitutions—the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Gibraltar, the Falklands Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands, and St. Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha—have been agreed since 1997. In each case the constitution contains a Bill of Rights that reflects at a minimum the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This means that everyone in those territories has at least the same degree of protection under each constitution as people in the UK have under the ECHR and the Human Rights Act. It also means discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, as enshrined in the ECHR, is prohibited.

Secondary information