By Melanie Nathan, December 02, 2023
On December 07, 2024, Ghana will elect a new President. On December 18, the Ghanaian Supreme Court will deliver its ruling on a controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill that passed Parliament in February, 2024. All the while LGBTQI+ Ghanaians, typical to country conditions all across Africa, are the scapegoats for dueling politicians, which only serves to exacerbate the extreme anti- LGBTI climate, causing more hate and violence through the obvious resulting retribution against the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Ghanaian community.
In Ghana, same-sex consensual sexual acts between males is criminalized by the Colonia-era Penal Cods. Ghana is also in the process of determining whether or not Parliament’s newly passed anti-homosexuality legislation, “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill,” known as the ‘Family Values Bill’ (FVB), will become law, following the current constitutional challenge or attestation by the President.
On February 28, 2024, Ghana's Parliament passed the "The Family Values Bill". This law is a replica, and worse on some levels than Uganda's recent Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, otherwise known as the "Kill the Gays Bill". The Ghanaian law has caused widespread international outcry, and some even from within the country have drawn attention to how the law will negatively impact Ghana's democracy and economy, standing to loose hundred of millions in global aid and investment.
Ghanaians are highly intolerant of homosexuality as indicated from the surveys, noting one of the highest intolerance levels at over 90%, on the Continent. So it is no surprise that the fact that the current President, Nana Addo Akufo-Addo, serving as the 12th President since 2017, and not running for reelection, has been caught between a rock and a hard place navigating the popularity of the new law with country's sovereignty versus international repercussions if he signed the Bill. Akufo-Addo he has refused to accept the Bill from Parliament, which places a time restriction on either signing it or rejecting it. His refusal to accept delivery has been based on his decision to wait for two merged constitutional challenges to the legislation that are currently before the court, pending a Dec18 ruling, mere days after the election that he is not running in. Although that has garnered criticism and accusations that he favors the gays, it gets him out of Dodge, so to speak
Now as the presidential election is close and the campaigns heat up, enter the presidential candidate for the same NPP Party and current Vice President, Dr. Mahamudu Bawumia. He has stated in no uncertain terms: “I will hurriedly sign the anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law,” amidst the turmoil of the refusal to accept caused by the current President. Although the Bill may die in court a mere ten days later, speaking during a worship service at Stephen Adom Kyei-Duah's Believers Worship Center in Kumasi, VP Bawumia reaffirmed his commitment to endorsing the bill once all legal processes are concluded: “There are some policies pending in Parliament which I know are very important to our father, Stephen Adom Kyei-Duah, Voice of God founder. One is the bill for the LGBTQ. When I come to power I will sign it without hesitation and the second thing is the Anti-witchcraft bill," Bawumia said on Sunday, December 1, 2024.
While this rhetoric is deployed and operates as a political tool to muster votes Ghana's LGBTI community wait in anticipation for the Court ruling and fear more of heightened persecution and violence that the Bill has already caused to date.
Bawumia's main challenger, former president John Dramani Mahama has not explicitly said he will sign the Bill if elected, but he has stated that Ghana must strengthen its laws against LGBTQ+ activities and people, accusing the west of promoting homosexuality in Ghana, and fostering the false provocative notion that homosexuality is un-African and a Western import.
The human rights organization Rightify Ghana noted that both political parties are using the LGBT issue as tools in their campaigns and the harms it is causing: "Rightify Ghana strongly condemns these hateful campaigns by both the NDC and the NPP. These actions not only undermine human rights but also heighten the risks of violence and discrimination against LGBTQI+ people, a community already facing a record number of human rights violations in 2024. We call on political parties to abandon these harmful tactics and focus their campaigns on addressing Ghana’s real issues, including:
- High unemployment rates
- Rampant corruption
- Poor infrastructure in schools and hospitals
- Destruction of water bodies, forests, and farmland due to illegal mining (galamsey)
- The rising cost of living
- Widespread poverty and underdevelopment
Ghana deserves a political discourse centered on solutions, not one that exploits vulnerable communities for political gain."
While the Family Values Bil, which passed on February 28, 2024, has not yet been assented into law by President Akufo-Addo, following the Supreme Court cases challenging its constitutionality and procedural breaches in Parliament and with the Supreme Court is set to deliver its judgment on the matter on December 18, 2024, all of this as caused a significant spike in violence and fear in the country, resulting in many LGBTQI+ Ghanaians hiding or fleeing the country seeking international protection and asylum.
Melanie Nathan, ED of African Human rights Coalition is a country conditions expert witness for LGBTQI+ Africans including Ghanaians. nathan@africanHRC.org
Pic: Bawumia pledges to sign 'anti-gay and anti-witchcraft bills' if elected President at church service
Comments