A coalition of 18 civil society groups has served notice they’ll seek recess at the Supreme Court of Ghana should President Akufo-Addo assent to the Proper Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2021.
According to the CSOs, the bill infringes on Ghana’s diverse cultural and religious landscape.
Parliament on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, unanimously passed after nearly three years of deliberation.
The bill seeks to criminalise the activities of the LGBTQ+ community.
Persons who identify as LGBTQI+ will be sentenced to a jail term of up to three years.
It also imposes a maximum five-year jail term for forming or funding LGBTQ+ groups.
Reacting to this, the Board Chair of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development CDD-Ghana, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, and the 18 CSOs will head to the apex court to seek redress if the president assents to the bill.
“It’s an obnoxious bill. It’s kind of like criminal libel, which the colonialists introduced, and we retained it. And it was used improperly against people, including journalists. We will come to find that this is like that,” she said.
“So we will make representation to the president, not to assent to the bill. I personally believe that this bill’s proposal through enactment – even the argumentation has very little to do with wanting to safeguard Ghanaian family values because the present danger that endangers our family values were never addressed in this bill.
“This bill was just narrowly targeted at minorities because they know that a majority of people don’t agree with a sexuality that is not binary.
“But the fact that a majority of people don’t agree with a minority position doesn’t make the majority right. It’s such a fundamental principle of democracy. That is why there are so many provisions in democratic constitutions that protect minorities and minority views and rights, but unfortunately, it fell on deaf ears,” she said.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
