Ghana’s President Nana Akufo-Addo says he will not assent a tough anti-LGBTIQA+ bill put forward by the parliament until the country’s Supreme Court has delivered a ruling on its constitutionality.
Gay sex is already illegal in Ghana and those convicted face a three-year jail sentence.
The new bill calls for a three-year jail term for anyone who says they are LGBTQA+, and anyone who creates a group or provides funding to a group can be jailed for up to five years.
Human Rights Watch commented on the legislation when it was under discussion last year.
“Ghana’s parliament should consider the disastrous social, political, and economic consequences that the anti-LGBT bill will have on journalists, human rights defenders, women, families, and on other minorities in the country.
“If passed into law, the bill will not only imperil fundamental human rights enshrined in Ghana’s 1992 Constitution, but also violate regional and international human rights obligations, such as the principles of nondiscrimination and equality enshrined in the African Charter of Human and People’s Rights.” the human rights organisation warned.
The timeline for the Supreme Court decision is unknown but it is likely to take more than a year. Ghana’s citizens will head to the polls in December for both Presidential and parliamentary elections.
Law may lead to country losing billions in aid funding
The country’s Finance Ministry has warned that passage of the legislation could result in the loss of US3.8 billion dollars of aid funding form the World Bank over the next five to six years.
The country is suffering major financial crisis and last year had a bailout from the International Monetary Fund.
President Akufo-Addo has spoken about the laws in a move to assure diplomatic partners that the country remains committed the human rights. Commenting on concern over the new laws he said it had “raised considerable anxieties in certain quarters of the diplomatic community and amongst some friends of Ghana that she may be turning her back on her, hitherto, enviable, longstanding record on human rights observance and attachment to the rule of law.”
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