Personal Autonomy and Individual Rights in Antigua and Barbuda – World Countries for Kids

There are no significant constraints on individuals’ freedom to travel within the nation or abroad, or to change their place of residence, work, or education. Although property rights and private business activity are generally supported in law and in practice, many Barbudans have opposed continuing attempts by lawmakers in Antigua to eradicate the communal land ownership system that has prevailed in Barbuda for nearly two centuries, and in its place establish private land ownership. Plans for large-scale private development have driven tensions between Gaston Alphonso Browne government and the Barbudan population and their representatives, whose worries include the environmental impact of such development. The Browne government has threatened those who try to obstruct the plans with jail time.

In Antigua and Barbuda personal social freedoms are generally respected, including those concerning marriage and other personal status issues, however same-sex marriage and civil partnerships are not recognized. The Domestic Violence Act of 2015 strengthened punishments for committers of domestic violence and laid out a process for sufferers to obtain an order of protection. However, domestic violence remains a serious issue. Similarly, the 2022 Sexual Offenders Registry Act established improved monitoring of convicted sex offenders and enabled the sharing of information among jurisdictions. Under the act convicted offenders’ names needs to be publicly listed, along with other pertinent information like their nationality, date of birth, current home address and workplace to make the public aware that a sexual predator may be in the area. It aims to lessen incidents of sexual reoffending by monitoring convicted sex offenders and by sharing information with participating jurisdictions within the OECS.

Compulsory labor is forbidden by law, and government exertions to address human trafficking have improved, however they are still lacking in some areas. Antigua and Barbuda continues to be a destination and transit nation for the trafficking of men, women, and children. In March 2023, over a dozen Cameroonians perished in a migrant-smuggling attempt after their boat, which had left from Antigua, capsized off the coast of St. Kitts. The Cameroonian migrants had originally arrived in Antigua from Nigeria on chartered flights, part of a flight route that was duly approved by the ABLP government in 2022 and endorsed as a regional link between the Caribbean and West Africa. But such flights seemed to have been used in a larger migrant-smuggling operation, and the route has since been shut. The government offered residency and work permits to hundreds of Cameroonians who were stranded in Antigua because of the operation.