• Sam Nartey George, MP for Ningo-Prampram is sponsoring the bill
• A professor of law says the bill promotes rights' violations but the MP disagrees
The anti-LGBTQ+ Bill before parliament has elements that violate the rights of Ghanaians, an Associate Professor at the University of Ghana School of Law has stated.
Prof. Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua said that rights of Ghanaians such as the rights to freedom of expression, rights of association, and the right to attain a certain form of development for one’s self, have all been violated in the current bill before the House, reports myjoyonline.com.
“When we are talking about Human Rights, these are rights that people are entitled to as a result of their humanity. Rights issues can also be seen in the context of the fact that we cannot have an omnivorous form of rights that every form of rights should subscribe to,” he said.
Besides, he said, the bill in its current form, when passed, will place a limitation or a complete ban on the freedom of all persons in the country to talk about issues pertaining to homosexuality.
“It has serious consequences on people’s freedom. The Bill, for example, says that you cannot question the issue of homosexuality; you cannot express it on the radio and social media. That’s a violation of the right to freedom of expression.
“The bill also talks about the fact that, if as a lecturer, I want to talk about LGBTQ rights in my Human Rights class, I cannot talk about it because I’ll be questioning the fundamentals of this particular practice which the law seems to prohibit,” he lamented.
In his justification, Sam Nartey George, the Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, and who is leading the sponsoring of this bill before parliament, explained that the bill rather guarantees protection against assault and harm meted against persons who subscribe to the LGBTQ+ community.
“Clause 22 prohibits extrajudicial treatment. Clauses in the bill actually give the people involved in LGBTQ+ activities the right to medical attention, etc.,” he explained.
Also, the MP emphasized that as long as, for instance, Prof. Appiagyei-Atua teaches about the challenges of the LGBTQ+ in his Human Rights law class and he does not try to inculcate their doctrines into his students, then he is out of the woods with regards the limitations of this bill.
“If you turn yourself into an advocate for LGBTQ rights in your class, and advocate that the Ghanaian child whom you have been asked to teach in trust, that child has been put in your care and trust, you are to teach that child in consonance with our customary values. And you go, and you are trying to inculcate something contrary, you would fall foul of the law.
“But if you are having an intellectual discussion, or a lecture on what the history of LGBTQ has been, how it has evolved, the challenges it’s facing even on the African continent, how it has been embraced elsewhere, and it is solely for educational purposes, you have no problem,” he explained.
A team of 8 MPs led by Samuel Nartey George have jointly submitted a private bill to push for the criminalization of LGBTQI+ activities in the country.
The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021 was laid in the House on Monday, August 2 and read for the first time.
They want the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be criminalized in the country.
Meanwhile, 18 prominent people have rejected the proposed anti-gay bill in parliament.
In their view, the bill violates almost all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the constitution.
Right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble, freedom of association and the right to organise, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity are what is denied the LQBTQI+ community, they have argued.
Prof. Kwadwo Appiagyei-Atua is a lecturer at the University of Ghana School of Law