Pressure is mounting on Ghana’s lawmakers to respect the rights of sexual minority groups especially homosexuals and lesbians as some European governments are expressing reservations about Ghana’s proposed Anti-LGBTQ bill.
Speaker of Parliament Alban Bagbin, last week, accused western governments of meddling in internal affairs when visiting US Vice President Kamala Harris stated, at a joint press briefing with President Akufo Addo, that her government is keen on preserving and promoting LGBTQ rights across the world.
However speaking at a news conference in Accra, the French Minister of State for For Europe And Foreign Affairs, Development, Francophonie and International Partnerships, Chrysoula Zacharopoulou noted that “regarding the LGBT community, in my country and the European Union, we promote human right and of course, in my ministry, we have an ambassador who promotes LGBT rights.”
“So what I can say is that this is our value and wherever I go in Africa, I will continue to say we have to respect all of us, the LGBT community is a question of human rights”.
It is unclear how the government of Ghana intends to deal with these concerns from the international community.
President Akufo-Addo at a recently held joint conference with visiting US Vice President Kamala Harris noted that “the Attorney General has found it necessary to speak to the committee (parliament) about it regarding the constitutionality or otherwise of several of its provisions,” he said. “But at the end of the process, I will come in.”
Meanwhile, the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of Parliament has recommended that the House pass the controversial Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021.
According to the Committee, a majority of Ghanaians are in favour of the legislation.
