Ghana Supreme Court tosses anti-LGBTQ hot potato back to president
A decision on the inhumane but politically popular bill likely will fall to the president-elect.
When the Ghana parliament unanimously passed the extreme anti-LGBTQ bill last February and sent it to President Nana Akufo-Addo, he didn’t want to take the politically unpopular position of standing up for human rights by vetoing it.
So he tossed that hot potato to Ghana’s Supreme Court. The President said he wouldn’t act on the bill until the court ruled on its constitutionality, which was challenged in two separate lawsuits.
Today the court tossed back the hot potato, saying in effect, “Nice try, buddy. We’re not taking the heat for you.”
More formally, the court declared: “The subject of the litigation—being a bill—remains in the process of becoming law in accordance with the constitution. It is therefore premature for this court to exercise its interpretative and enforcement jurisdiction to intervene.”
That’s a position much like those that the U.S. Supreme Court often takes.
However, the Ghana Supreme Court “avoided ruling for [almost a] year, always finding excuses to delay with the promise of a ruling set for today, which it then dismissed”, in the words of Melanie Nathan, executive director of the U.S.-based African Human Rights Coalition.
In theory, action on the anti-LGBTQ bill now depends on President Nana Akufo-Addo, but his term in office is about to expire. Don’t expect him to do anything about the bill before he steps down on Jan. 7. That will leave the hot potato in the lap of President-elect John Mahama.
Although the anti-LGBTQ bill has been at the forefront of public discussion for more than a year, Mahama has acted as if he had no idea what it contains.
After winning the presidential election on Dec. 8, Mahama said, “I think we must look at the bill, and the president must indicate what he finds wrong with the bill and send the bill back to Parliament or alternatively, he must send it to the Council of State and get the Council of State’s advice.”
If the bill is enacted, Ghana could lose $3.8 billion in World Bank financing and $3 billion in loans from the International Monetary Fund that the country needs to ease the current economic crisis. The anti-LGBTQ bill would also violate dozens of human rights standards and treaties.
The bill would expand on Ghana’s current law that provides a three-year prison sentence for same-sex intimacy.
It proposes to throw every LGBTQ person in Ghana into prison for three years. (Would that be 1 million people — 3 percent — of Ghana’s population of more than 34 million? Probably not, since many Ghanaians who are actually gay would make sure not to “hold out as” LGBTQ, in the language of the bill, so they could avoid prosecution.)
The bill would also impose prison sentences of up to 10 years on people who “promote” LGBTQ activity.
The new bill would also impose three years in prison for people who:
- Participate in gender-reassignment surgery;
- Enter into a same-sex marriage; or
- Attend a same-sex wedding.
