PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – The Law Reform Association of Trinidad and Tobago says, despite certain sections of the proposed stand-your-ground legislation being in contravention with the Constitution, it is supportive of the measure aimed at curbing the increase in home invasions by criminals.
“In recent years, there has been a rash of home invasions across Trinidad and Tobago. Citizens have recounted stories of being awakened by men armed with all manner of weapons in their homes. There are traumatic accounts of being tied up, threatened, and beaten by bandits ransacking their houses for cash and other valuable items. Some citizens have even lost their lives in home invasions.
“While the problem of crime is multifaceted, this bill is a long-overdue measure to combat the spiralling crime of home invasions. The measures being proposed in this bill will ensure that householders who are the victims of a home invasion are not treated as criminals when they act in self-defence, defence of another person, or defence of property.
“Thus, the aims of the bill in light of the current bane of criminal activity, are sufficiently important, necessary and proportionate to limit the fundamental right to life,” the Law Reform Commission said in a policy paper on home invasion and self-defence.
The Kamla Persad Bissessar led coalition government has said it intends to table the legislation in Parliament this month. According to the Home Invasion (Self Defence and Defence of Property) Bill 2025, posted on the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs website, it is designed to protect people from the threat of home invasion and not provide a free licence to kill anyone who enters someone else’s property.
According to the limitations of the proposed legislation, homeowners who are under the influence of drugs when they threaten or use force against an intruder, and homeowners who threaten or use force against law enforcement officers executing their duties, will not be protected by the legislation.
Other limitations include the nature of the force or threat being used against the occupant; the extent to which that force was imminent; whether a weapon, firearm or explosive device was used in the home invasion; the size, age, gender and physical capabilities of the parties; the nature and proportionality of the occupant’s response to the threat; and whether the occupant did what he honestly and instinctively thought was necessary for a legitimate purpose.
In its policy paper, the Law Reform Commission is advising the government, which has an overwhelming majority in the 41 seat Parliament to share the policy paper as well as the draft bill with the public for comment with a deadline for receipt of any comments; consultation on the bill and policy paper be conducted with significant stakeholders including the police, the judiciary and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) as well as the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago.
The Law Reform Commission noted that apart from the rights enshrined in the Constitution, the country has a suite of laws that could provide allowances for self-defence and provide rules that make offences of the acts of manslaughter, trespassing, robbery, burglary, and housebreaking, but nothing that makes home invasion a specific offence.
“At present, the country has no dedicated law dealing with home invasion, ”it said, noting that the Offences Against the Person Act provides for “excusable homicide”. The Criminal Law Act allows a person to use whatever force is reasonable in the circumstances, in the prevention of a crime.
The Law Reform Commission said that while there are other pieces of legislation providing some form of protection to homeowners, such as the Larceny Act and the Trespass Act, “the peculiar elements of home invasion are not, in particular, express provision for self-defence on the part of the occupant”.
It said that the draft legislation seeks to establish home invasion as its offence and, in that context, establish that a person has no duty to retreat when operating in self-defence or defence of their property.
“The bill would establish the offence of home invasion and set out the parameters of the offence. This would include the unlawful entry by a person, the home invader, into a dwelling house with the intent to use force, or threaten the imminent use of force, on occupants of the dwelling house.
The offence of home invasion would also cater for instances in which a home invader intentionally causes any injury to occupants of a dwelling house, including grievous bodily harm, grievous sexual assault, rape, and death.”
According to the proposed legislation posted on the government’s website, the objective of the bill is to to establish the offence of home invasion and provides that “a person has no duty to retreat when operating in self– defence or defence of his property; to provide that a person may use defensive force, including deadly force, to protect himself or his property.”
Clause 6 of the bill establishes home invasion as a specific offence and sets out its parameters. This includes the unlawful entry by a person, the home invader, into a dwelling house with the intent to use force, or threaten the imminent use of force, on occupants of the dwelling house.
The offence also caters for instances in which a home invader “intentionally causes any injury to occupants of a dwelling house, including grievous bodily harm, grievous sexual assault, rape and death.”
A home invasion may involve a home invader stealing, damaging, or destroying property in the dwelling house with or without the use of intimidation, threats, or violence.
The bill also states a home invasion may involve the use of a weapon, a firearm, or an explosive device to cause grievous bodily harm, permanent disability, permanent disfigurement, or death to any person in a dwelling house.
The bill makes allowance for aggravating factors, “where a home invasion is carried out by a member of a gang, a participant in an organised criminal activity, or the presence of a child, senior citizen, differently abled or vulnerable person.”
Clause 7 of the bill provides that the occupant of a dwelling house has no duty to retreat from a home invader and has the right to stand his ground when acting in self-defence.
This would arise in circumstances where the occupant believes, on reasonable grounds, that force was being used or threatened by the home invader, or that the occupant’s life or that of another person was in immediate danger or threat of danger.
To justify self-defence, Clause 7 states, “The occupant must also believe that his actions were necessary and reasonable to defend or protect himself, or another person, from the use or threat of force, and that the defensive force used was proportionate to the threat he honestly believed to exist.”
Clause 8 of the bill makes allowances for a person’s right to defend their property.
“For defence of property during a home invasion, the use of deadly force may be justified where an occupant reasonably believes that using or threatening to use such force is necessary to prevent or remove a home invader from the dwelling house, or to protect his property or that of another person.”
The proposed legislation also creates two tiers of penalty upon conviction. The proposed penalty is TT$500,000 (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) and 20 years imprisonment. Where there existed aggravating factors during a home invasion, the convicted offender faces a fine of TT$750,000 and 25 years imprisonment.
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