Ghana’s ‘draconian’ anti-LGBTQ+ bill moves forward after Supreme Court rejects legal challenges
Activist Prince Frimpong believes Ghana could “never recover” if a bill that imposes prison sentences for identifying as LGBTQ+ and supporting the queer community passes into law. (Getty/Prince Frimpong)
Ghana’s Supreme Court has rejected legal challenges to an anti-LGBTQ+ bill.
The court dismissed two cases challenging proposed legislation that would impose prison sentences on queer people, on Wednesday (17 December).
Approved by lawmakers in February, the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act would impose prison sentences of up to three years for those simply identifying as LGBTQ+. It would also crack down on anyone promoting queer identities.
Homosexual acts between men have been illegal in the West African nation since colonial times and are termed “unnatural carnal knowledge”. Outgoing president Nana Akufo-Addo has delayed signing the bill into law while the legal challenges were going through the courts.
Lawyers Amanda Odoi and Richard Sky sought to prevent it being enacted, according South Africa’s SABC News. But, in a televised ruling, justice Avril Lovelace-Johnson declared their cases premature. “Until there’s presidential assent, there is no act,” she said, adding the objections were “unanimously dismissed”.
There have been marches in support of the bill, and the National Democratic Congress Party’s Samuel Nartey George said that the supreme court had taken too long to make a decision.
Akufo-Addo, who is standing down after serving his two permitted terms, refused to sign the bill into law, citing not only the legal issues but also the likely economic impact, which could cost the country billions in World Bank funding.
Director of Amnesty International Ghana Genevieve Partington has said: “The bill is one of the most draconian in Africa and seeks to further criminalise lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”
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