A Group comprising of eminent Ghanaians has called on Parliament to remove a private member bill, “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021” from list of bills to be considered when the House resumes.
Members of the Group of Ghanaian Citizens include Professor Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh, Professor Kwame Karikari, Professor Kofi Gyimah-Boadi, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, Dr. Yao Graham and Professor Dzodzi Tsikata.
The rest are Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, Mr Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Dr Kojo Asante, Mr Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, Mr Akunu Dake, Mr Tetteh Hormeku-Ajei, Professor Raymond Atuguba, Dr Charles Wereko-Brobby, Dr Joseph Asunka and Nana Ama Agyemang Asante.
The private member’s Bill, being pushed by some members of the Ghanaian legislature led by Ningo-Prampram MP Sam George, is seeking to criminalize the activities of LGBTQ in the country.
On 29th June 2021, the draft copy of the bill was symbolically submitted to the speaker Alban Bagbin for his review at a meeting of the Parliamentary Christian Fellowship.
But a group led by Akoto Ampaw, at a press conference said the Group in a memorandum to Parliament, expressed its opposition to the passage of a bill which they believed threatened to undermine the rights and freedoms Ghanaians had fought for and gained as citizens of “our democratic republic”.
He noted that the LGBTQ Bill currently before Parliament was a major step backwards for democracy, inclusiveness, the protection of minorities and the vulnerable in society, and of fundamental human rights in Ghana.
“We therefore, call on the freedom loving people of Ghana to ask their representatives in Parliament to reject this dangerous bill and ask you to disseminate to the public our views on this issue”.
He said the Bill constituted a flagrant violation of the rights and freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution and is an existential threat to the country and its core values as set out in the Preamble of Chapter Five on Fundamental Human Rights, and Chapter 6 on Directive Principles of State Policy of the 1992 Constitution.
“The Bill violates virtually all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the Constitution (Articles 11, 15, 18 and 21), namely the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief, the freedom to practice any religion and to manifest such in practice (which includes the freedom not to practice any religion)”.
“Others are the right to assemble, including the freedom to take part in processions and demonstrations, the freedom of association and the right to organize, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity”, he added.
He said in essence the provisions of the Bill were so egregious in their violation of the above stated fundamental human rights and freedoms that it beggars belief that they could be introduced as a Bill in the House of Parliament.
