Prime News Ghana

Ghana's Parliament pursues stringent law to ‘nib LGBT+ activities in the bud’

By George Nyavor
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Ghana’s Parliament will soon pass a rigorous law against LGBT+ activities in the country, the Speaker of the House has revealed.

The current law does not clearly outlaw LGBT+ activities although it criminalises ‘unnatural carnal knowledge’, explained as sexual intercourse with a person in an unnatural manner or with an animal.

Gay rights activists in Ghana have said the extant law does not make homosexuality and other LGBT+ activities illegal.

 The Speaker, Alban Bagbin, has said there is an ongoing process to put to rest ambiguities in the current law against LGBT+ activities in Ghana.

“Urgent actions are being taken to pass a law to eventually nib the activities of these groups in the bud. Stakeholder consultations are ongoing and the results will feed into a Bill that will eventually be passed into law by Parliament,” the Speaker of Parliament said in his response to a petition.

The petition was filed by a political activist, Emmanuel Abankwah Kesse, for Parliament to amend Ghana’s human rights law to enable it to fight activities of LGBT+ groups and their presence in Ghana more effectively.

Calls for a stronger anti-LGBT+ law in Ghana came to the fore in February this year when a pro-LGBT+ group opened an office in Accra.

Despite the less-stringent law against these groups in Ghana, there are strong anti-LGBT+ moral and religious sentiments in Ghanaian society.

News that notable European diplomats in Ghana were present at the opening of the 'LGBT+Rights Ghana' office caused a public furore.

Led by religious organisations and Moses Foh-Amoaning’s National Coalition for Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values, there has been a strong push for Ghana’s Parliament to pass an exhaustive law against LGBT+ activities.

Half of all the countries that have criminalised LGBT+ activities are in Africa.