Ghana: bill criminalizing the promotion of homosexuality under review
Ghana's parliament is preparing to consider a bill that aims to restrict the rights of LGBT + people and criminalize their defenders.
© Getty Images / Beli P.
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Examined for the first time on August 2, the text is entitled “
defense of so-called appropriate Ghanaian sexual and family values
”.
The parliamentary committee responsible for studying the proposal resumed its hearings on Monday, November 29.
About a hundred personalities have started to give their opinion, the same people who have already submitted a memorandum on this subject.
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On November 11, the first hearings were suspended the same day for lack of time.
No hindrance this time around, but still no consensus.
For the promoters of the text, this proposal is necessary to help LGBT people “
convert
” to heterosexuality.
For its detractors, this project is irrelevant because Ghanaian law already criminalizes homosexuality.
But for conservative lawyer Moses Fo-Amoaning, the law does not go far enough.
No supervision, for example, of financial support for the LGBT cause.
According to him, sympathizers would have taken advantage of this loophole to finance the creation of a new reception center to the tune of 80,000 dollars.
The precedent was closed in February by the authorities, accused, precisely, of promoting homosexuality.
What denies Alex Kofi Donkor, director of the NGO LGBT + Rights Ghana.
"Turn the Ghanaians against us"
“
One of the reasons that pushed us to create this center was the need of LGBT people to meet, learn and grow together, while denouncing the
status quo
which perpetuates all forms of discrimination.
But our approach has been instrumentalized by anti-LGBT groups who have constantly turned the Ghanaians against us, in particular by disseminating false information on the reasons why we created this space.
"
For the director of the NGO LGBT + Rights Ghana, there is no doubt: if the bill is passed as it is, it will worsen homophobia and discrimination against sexual minorities, and could set a bad example to other countries in the region.
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See also:
Ghana: controversy over a controversial law criminalizing the promotion of homosexuality
"What will come out of parliament will be something which will be deeply democratic"
How to defend the rights of LGBT citizens without being accused of promoting a sexual orientation? This sensitive question comes up often in the debate on homosexuality in Africa. And Ghana is no exception, explains Anne-Sophie Avé, the French Ambassador to Ghana, who believes that Paris does not have to speak out on an "
internal
" matter.
We are trying to help the Ghanaian militant associations to structure themselves, to talk with parliamentarians, we help them to have legal advice, to be more armed to be able to defend their positions in a more strategic way; to try to cringe at the idea that what they would like to do is proselytize. So they probably have to adapt their speech to show "but no, what we want is not to be discriminated against, what we want is not to be denied access to housing, or access to a job on the grounds that we are from this community. " There have been 140 memoranda that have been filed, in Ghana anyone can file a memorandum. There are few countries in which the committee responsible for studying the proposed law hasobligation to officially receive all contributions from all lobbies. What will come out of Parliament will be something which will be deeply democratic and which will correspond to the deep feeling of Ghanaians. Today, only the extremes are expressed on either side.
Anne-Sophie Avé
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Ghana
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