By Yvonne Atilego
The Coalition of Muslim Organization, COMOG, has called on the leadership of Parliament to ensure that the Proper Human Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill is passed into law.
COMOG which is made up of 29 Muslim groups, also urged President Akufo Addo to assent to the Bill when it is finally passed. The group noted that the Bill if passed into law will bring conclusiveness to the brouhaha surrounding LGBTQI+ in the country. The support from COMOG follows a similar one by some Christian leaders advocating the passage of the Proper Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, which is before Parliament.
Speaking to Journalists in Accra, a Spokesperson for COMOG, Prince Zakaria Moses, said the group abhors issues surrounding LGBTQI+ and will gather the necessary support from partners to ensure that nothing is done to undermine what they describe as the sanctity of the country’s cultural values.
Another member of COMOG, Alhaji Imam Abas, said members of Parliament owe Ghanaians a moral duty to pass the Proper Human Rights Meanwhile leadership of the group presented a memorandum to the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee of Parliament. Two proponents of the Bill, MP for Ningo- Prampram, Sam George, and Former Works and Housing Minister, Alhaji Collins Dauda were present during the presentation. They pledged support to the passage of the bill. The bill, dubbed “The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2021,” has received widespread public support, with a section of the public condemning it and describing it as promoting hate.
Ghana’s LGBTQ Bill is a violation of 1992 Constitution – Group says
Meanwhile, a Bill currently before Ghana’s Parliament which seeks to criminalize and impose jail terms on lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queers (LGBTQ+) and people who promote such activities in the country has been described as, “a flagrant violation of the 1992 Constitution, as it seeks to curtail freedom of expression and the media, the right to assemble and the right to join any association of one’s choice’’.
Consequently, a group made up of academics, lawyers, researchers, civil society organisations and human rights activists has kicked against it.
According to the group, the Bill, Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill when passed into law, would erode fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution, and send Ghana to the dark ages of lawlessness and intolerance.
The group, made up of 18 members, has already submitted a 30-page Memorandum to Parliament, detailing what it described as the unconstitutionality of the bill.
Speaking to Journalists in Accra, the group said its advocacy is not about whether lesbianism or gayism was right or wrong but rather it is worried about the blatant violations of human rights, as contained in the Bill. The Bill according to the group violates virtually all the key fundamental freedoms guaranteed under the constitution, namely, the right to freedom of speech and expression, the right to assemble, freedom of Association and the right to organize, the right to freedom from discrimination and the right to human dignity.
It has, therefore, called on Parliament to reject the Bill. The group include lawyer Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Prof. Takyiwaa Manu; a Communications and Media expert, Prof. Kwame Karikari; the Dean of the University of Ghana, School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and the Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo.
The rest are Director of Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Professor Dzodzi Tsikata; the Executive Director of the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Kwasi Prempeh, and a former Executive Director of CDD-Ghana, Prof. Kofi Gyimah-Boadi.
Others are Dr. Rose Mensah-Kutin, Dr. Yao Graham, Kwasi Adu Amankwah, Dr. Kojo Asante, Kingsley Ofei-Nkansah, Akunu Dake, Tetteh Hormeku-Adjie, Dr. Charles Wereko-Brobbey, Dr. Joseph Asunka and Nana Ama Agyemang Asante.
