Ghana opposition ready to pass ‘anti-gay’ bill as elections loom

Alameen Templeton

Ghana’s Vice President and opposition leader, Mhamudu Bawumia, has announced he’ll pass a pending “anti-gay” law that calls for three years imprisonment for homosexuality if he wins a presidential election come December.
President Nana Addo Dnakwa Akufo-Addo has delayed signing the bill into law until the country’s Supreme Court rules on pending lawsuits.
Bawumia’s New Patriotic Party deputy, Works and Housing Minister Kojo Oppong Nkrumah, said last week Bawumia was openly opposed to homosexuality and would pass the law if outstanding legal matters were addressed.
“He has said that he is openly anti-LGBTQ and he’s not going to support any conversation or argument that says we should normalise or legalise LGBTQ things in this country,” Nkrumah said.
Bawumia would “protect Ghanaian family and cultural values” and did not “support all these LGBTQ things that some people are trying to promote. He’s totally against it,” Nkrumah added.
Ghana’s parliament approved the bill in February. It aims to ban LGBTQ activities and increase jail terms for gay advocates beyond the present three years, but it faces human rights challenges in court, Bloomberg reports Monday.
“The proposed legislation, which forces anyone who knows someone is LGTQ to report them to authorities, has drawn criticism from some of Ghana’s international partners even as the country needs their support to overcome a debt crisis.
“It has also faced legal challenges from ordinary citizens over its constitutionality,” Bloomberg says.
Ghana’s Supreme Court adjourned its first, heated hearing into the case in May without setting a return date, further delaying any resolution on the bill, the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
The court ruled the plaintiffs and lawyers for the Speaker of Parliament needed to amend their motions to remove “inappropriate, intemperate language” in order to be courteous.
However, the court in July upheld the existing law allowing imprisonment for homosexual sex.
International news agencies are linking the latest, anti-gay legislation to donor funding to the country, which they emphasise is facing an economic crisis.
“Supporters of the bill have been pushing for its promulgation despite a finance ministry warning that it could jeopardise $3.8 billion in World Bank financing and derail a $3-billion International Monetary Fund loan package.
“Oxford Economics said in a note on Wednesday that while the legislation might impact the country’s ability to tap into concessional sources such as the World Bank, it would not affect Ghana’s ability to receive disbursements under its current IMF programme,” Reuters reported in May.
The Institute for Security Studies said in April Ghana’s clampdown on homosexuality was echoing a similar programme in Uganda that outlawed LGBTQ activities in 2013.
Uganda penalties can include life imprisonment and even the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”.
“In March this year, the Constitutional Court overrode most human rights challenges and upheld the essence of the law. It did strike down sections that restricted healthcare access for LGBT people, criminalised renting premises to LGBT people, and created an obligation to report alleged acts of homosexuality,” ISS said.