By: Franklin ASARE-DONKOH
Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament, Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has cautioned that conditioning aid tied to the alteration of African family values and domestic laws violates the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
Rt. Hon. Bagbin, who currently serves as President of the Conference of Speakers and Presidents of African Legislatures (CoSPAL) and Chairperson of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) Africa Group, stated that Africans do not seek to dictate the internal legal frameworks of other continents and therefore expect the same respect for their sovereignty in return.
The Speaker of Ghana’s Parliament and the immediate past Chairman/President of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) gave the caution at the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty, and Values held in Accra on Wednesday, June 3, 2026.
Speaker Bagbin called on participants at the conference to approach sovereignty with maturity and legal precision, adding that sovereignty is not a passive shield. It is an active and vigorous exercise of self-definition and the inherent right of a people to determine their social, economic, and moral destiny, free from external coercion or ideological conditionalities.
“When we examine the constitutions of our African states, we find a remarkable jurisprudential consensus. Here in Ghana, Article 39 of the 1992 Constitution mandates that the State foster, preserve, and enrich our traditional cultural values, while balancing these with the demands of modern development and fundamental human freedoms. Similar provisions exist across virtually every nation represented in this room.
Our constitutions empower Parliament to act as the bridge between traditional heritage and modern statutory law. When African Parliaments legislate on the family, we fulfil a direct, legitimate constitutional command.
Despite this, we have, in recent times, witnessed a troubling narrative: development assistance, trade agreements, natural resource agreements, and bilateral cooperation have been made contingent upon the adoption of legal and cultural paradigms alien to our socio-cultural fabric.
Let me emphasize that conditioning aid on the alteration of domestic laws to the disadvantage of beneficiary countries violates the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the United Nations Charter.
We do not seek to dictate the internal legal frameworks of other continents, and we expect, in return, the same respect for our sovereignty,” portions of his speech read.
Below is the unedited speech by Rt. Hon. Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS BY SPEAKER OF THE PARLIAMENT OF GHANA, RT. HON. ALBAN SUMANA KINGSFORD BAGBIN
ON THE OCCASION OF THE 4TH AFRICAN INTER-PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE ON FAMILY, SOVEREIGNTY, AND VALUES
Accra, Ghana
· Rt Hon Speakers of African Legislatures,
· Distinguished Members of Parliament from across our continent,
· Your Excellencies, Members of the Diplomatic Corps,
· Our Revered Ministers of God,
· Venerable Traditional Leaders,
· Representatives of Civil Society Organizations,
· Esteemed Delegates,
· Ladies and Gentlemen,
1.0 INTRODUCTION
It is with a great deal of reverence, humility, and honor that I warmly welcome you all to Accra, a historic sanctuary for Pan-African liberation. And it is indeed a privilege for the opportunity accorded me to deliver the keynote address at this memorable conference. Organizers of the Conference could not have settled on a more appropriate venue after the delegates at the third conference in Uganda overwhelmingly voted for Ghana to host the fourth conference. Which other place in Ghana is more appropriate than Accra for this event? It was on this soil, Ghana, after all, that the architecture of African self-determination was forged by forebears who understood that political independence was only the first step in a long walk to true freedom. Our forebears proclaimed that true emancipation lies in the complete restoration of our intellectual, cultural, and institutional autonomy. It is in furtherance of our long search for self-actualization that we gather at this 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference to confront a defining challenge of our generation: the preservation and modern codification of our identity in an increasingly globalized world.
Distinguished Participants, there is a philosophical maxim deeply rooted in our indigenous heritage: “Obra ye bɔ bɔ mu na ɛyɛ dɛ”, to wit: the beauty and sweetness of life lie in its collective expression and our communal interconnectedness. In the African worldview, the individual does not exist in isolation; we find our meaning, protection, and purpose within the sacred framework of the family. I am because you are, and you are because we are. UBUNTU.
As legislators and chosen custodians of the people’s sovereign will, our mandate is to ensure that the laws we enact, the budgets we approve, and the policies we oversee reflect this reality. True sovereignty does not begin at our national borders or within legislative chambers; it is born, nurtured, and sustained in the smallest unit of governance on Earth, the African family. If the family breaks under economic distress or cultural alienation, the state itself loses its structural integrity.
2.0 CONSTITUTIONALISM, LEGISLATIVE AUTONOMY, AND THE ESSENCE OF SOVEREIGNTY
Your Excellencies, we must approach sovereignty with maturity and legal precision. Sovereignty is not a passive shield. It is an active, vigorous exercise of self-definition – the inherent right of a people to determine their social, economic, and moral destiny, free from external coercion or ideological conditionalities.
When we examine the constitutions of our African states, we find a remarkable jurisprudential consensus. Here in Ghana, Article 39 of the 1992 Constitution mandates that the State foster, preserve, and enrich our traditional cultural values, while balancing these with the demands of modern development and fundamental human freedoms. Similar provisions exist across virtually every nation represented in this room. Our constitutions empower Parliament to act as the bridge between traditional heritage and modern statutory law. When African Parliaments legislate on the family, we fulfil a direct, legitimate constitutional command.
Despite this, we have, in recent times, witnessed a troubling narrative: development assistance, trade agreements, natural resource agreements, and bilateral cooperation have been made contingent upon the adoption of legal and cultural paradigms alien to our socio-cultural fabric. Let me emphasize that conditioning aid on the alteration of domestic laws to the disadvantage of beneficiary countries violates the principle of sovereign equality enshrined in the United Nations Charter. We do not seek to dictate the internal legal frameworks of other continents, and we expect, in return, the same respect for our sovereignty.
Our laws must look like the people they are written to protect. A law that does not resonate with the spirit, history, and moral conscience of the citizenry is a dead law. As African legislators, our loyalty must remain anchored to the mandates given to us by our electorates.
3.0 REDEFINING THE AFRICAN FAMILY STRUCTURE IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Distinguished delegates, as we defend the family, we must avoid adopting an oversimplified or imported definition of the family. The Western concept of the nuclear family, isolated, individualistic, lonely, and strictly bounded, fails to capture the expansive, resilient, and self-sustaining genius of the African family.
In Africa, a family is an intergenerational web of mutual responsibility: grandparents who carry our historical memory, aunts and uncles who share the burden of childcare, and the community that rallies around the vulnerable. This is not an archaic relic; it is our most successful indigenous social safety net. Family is the social security that cushions our people through economic downturns, civil conflicts, and health crises when formal state welfare systems are inadequate.
“To protect the African family is to protect our primary economic engine, our first school of civic virtue, and our oldest institution of social security.”
Yet the family, as an institution, is under severe structural strain. Economic vulnerability is disintegrating families faster than any external ideology. When parents are forced to migrate across borders or into overcrowded urban slums to survive, the family fractures. An educational deficit compounds it. When our systems alienate our youth from their roots, we create an intergenerational chasm that tears households apart from within. And an unregulated digital frontier bypasses traditional community filters, exposing our children to hyper-individualistic values before they can weigh them against their own.
If we wish to preserve the family, our interventions must move beyond rhetoric. We must recognize the family as a macroeconomic stakeholder, creating tax incentives for households that care for elderly relatives and prioritizing national budget investment in affordable housing, child nutrition, and maternal healthcare. True protection requires a shift from moral posturing to material empowerment.
4.0 HARMONISING HERITAGE WITH HUMAN RIGHTS AND PEOPLES’ DIGNITY
Colleagues, let us address a critical question: Is there an irreconcilable contradiction between traditional African family values and universal human rights? My answer is an emphatic no. The narrative that Africa must choose between cultural heritage and the protection of human rights is a false dichotomy, built on the erroneous assumption that human rights were invented elsewhere and imported into our shores. Long before global declarations were drafted, African societies practiced deep systems of human dignity—what we call Ubuntu: “I am because we are.”
We find this synthesis captured in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. Article 18 of the Charter states:
“The family shall be the natural unit and basis of society. It shall be protected by the State, which shall take care of its physical health and moral being. The State shall have the duty to assist the family, which is the custodian of morals and traditional values recognized by the community.”
The Charter does not treat rights and values as opposing forces. It places the family at the center of the rights framework, the vehicle through which human dignity is realized and protected. Therefore, our language and legislation must reflect the highest standards of statesmanship and human compassion. Defending African family values must never be used as a pretext for state-sanctioned violence, oppression, or the denial of basic human security to any citizen. The true strength of African culture does not lie in exclusion or brutality; it lies in our capacity for restoration, community care, and deep hospitality, what we in Ghana proudly call Obake, Akwaaba, Marhaba, Ye waa yaane, etc.
Our legislative frameworks must firmly protect the most vulnerable within the family ecosystem. We must pass laws that combat domestic violence, eliminate harmful practices that dehumanize our girls and women, end child labor, and secure the economic rights of widows and orphans. A family structure that tolerates the exploitation of its own members cannot claim to be a custodian of genuine African values. By purging these internal injustices, we strengthen our moral authority to resist external interference.
5.0 A CALL FOR REGIONAL LEGISLATIVE SYNERGY AND PAN- AFRICAN ACTION
Your Excellencies, the challenges we face are transnational. Therefore, our response must be collective. No single African nation can safeguard its legislative sovereignty in isolation. When one country stands alone against unfair external pressures, it risks economic isolation. But when we stand together as a continent of 1.4 billion people, our voice becomes immutable. We must actively utilize our regional legislative bodies, including the Pan-African Parliament, the ECOWAS Parliament, the East African Legislative Assembly, the SADC Parliamentary Forum, and others, to build a unified legal shield.
The formal adoption of an African Family Values Charter at this Conference will advance this vision. Harmonizing family protection codes establishes a continental standard that prevents “forum-shopping” and resists external legal pressures, anchoring our societal structures in African realities. Again, through this collaborative pan-African action, we ensure that our national sovereignties are structurally reinforced by an indigenous charter, written by Africans for Africans.
We need to further anchor the implementation of the Charter with the African Union’s Agenda 2063, specifically Aspiration 5, which envisions an Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, shared values, and ethics. By anchoring implementation initiatives with Agenda 2063, our defense of family values becomes inextricably linked to our broader goals of integration, industrialization, and sustainable development.
At this juncture, I pay a profound tribute to the visionary founding nations of this movement, especially Uganda. Your early commitment laid the foundations on which this continental coalition stands today. In particular, we owe an immense debt of gratitude to the Parliament and the people of Uganda. For three consecutive periods, Uganda kept the torch of this assignment aglow by serving as the dedicated host of this conference. Your unwavering institutional resilience and hospitality provided the vital sanctuary in which our shared ideals were protected, nurtured, and sustained during those foundational years. Africa thanks you for your steadfast leadership.
6.0 CONCLUSION: THE VISION OF A PROSPEROUS, SELF-DETERMINED AFRICA
Rt. Hon Speakers, Distinguished Colleagues, Ladies and Gentlemen, we stand at a critical crossroads. The choices we make in our parliaments over the next few years will determine whether Africa enters the mid-21st century as a culturally distinct, self-determined global power or as a fragmented continent that has bartered its soul for superficial economic validation.
Let us reject the false premise that modernization requires the erasure of our cultural identity. We can build advanced technological economies and participate at the highest levels of global finance while remaining profoundly African. We do not need to become a carbon copy of other civilizations to be civilized.
When you return to your respective capitals, let the resolutions we adopt here not gather dust in the archives of our secretariats. Let them be translated into active bills, robust budgetary allocations, and rigorous oversight. Go home and tell your people that their representatives have resolved to protect the sanctuaries of their homes, the heritage of their ancestors, and the sovereignty of their nations. Let us march forward with courage, with intellectual clarity, and with unyielding faith in the genius of our people.
May God bless the African family, and may God bless our glorious continent.
On this note, I declare the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty, and Values, duly launched.
Thank you very much.
