Fate of Ghana’s anti-LGBTQ bill depends on the nation’s Supreme Court
President declares that Ghana won’t turn its back on human rights
The political scene in Ghana is in turmoil after the passage of a far-reaching and harsh anti-LGBTQ bill.
The bill has been appealed to the Supreme Court even before being signed into law. President Nana Akufo-Addo says he won’t act on the bill unless it is approved by the Supreme Court.
Akufo-Addo has declared that Ghana would not abandon its commitment to human rights, although Ghana already outlaws gay sex and threatens a three-year prison sentence for any convicted of same-sex intercourse.
The new bill would extend prison sentences and apply them not only to same-sex relations but also to anyone identifying as LGBTQ, supporting LGBTQ people or advocating for recognition of the human rights of LGBTQ people.
Ghana’s Ministry of Finance warned that the bill puts $3.8 billion in World Bank funding at risk, likely would derail a $3 billion International Monetary Fund bailout program agreed to in 2023, and would negatively affect the value of Ghanaian currency.
Several Ghanaian political figures have urged Akufo-Addo to veto the bill, even though it won unanimously in Parliament, which presumably could override a veto.
Samia Nkrumah, chair of the Convention People’s Party and the daughter of Ghana independence leader and first president Kwame Nkrumah, urged the president to veto it, calling it “brutal, harsh, and unjust.”
Without explaining why he was taking two opposing positions simultaneously, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, the deputy minister-designate for the Ministry of Local Government, Decentralisation, and Rural Development, said he “wholeheartedly” supports the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, but opposes imprisoning gay people, which is exactly what the bill would do.
Catholic bishops in Ghana also announced their opposition to imprisoning homosexuals although they endorsed the anti-LGBTQ bill last December.
Bishop Matthew Kwasi Gyamfi, president of Ghana’s Bishops’ Conference, said imprisoning gay people could encourage homosexuality in overcrowded prisons.
“You see, if you round up same-sex people and you know our prisons, they are going to end up in the same room and what is going to prevent them from going through these same activities in the prison,” he said.
Correction: The bill, as amended and passed, no longer contains a provision promoting “conversion therapy”, a harmful and ineffective practice that seeks to turn LGBTQ people straight. An incorrect statement to the contrary was removed from this article on March 22.
