The Member of Parliament for Madina Francis Xavier Sosu says the LGBT bill currently being discussed in the country must be reviewed to address “matters of concern”.
The comment comes after the popular human rights lawyer was criticized on social media by his fellow party member Ras Mubarak for his seeming considerate stands on LGBT rights.
“The Madina MP is courageous but foolishly courageous. He’s in Parliament representing the people of Madina. If he’s minded, majority of the people he represents are very opposed to the things he seeks to defend,” Mr Mubarak wrote on Facebook.
Reacting to the comment, the first time lawmaker said “I must also clarify that the Bill which is currently at the draft stage and will be laid before the house before being referred to the appropriate Committee for consideration in its current form has quite some issues and concerns which every lawyer must be courageous to point out though I concede, it is a great and bold attempt to bringing sanity and finality to a practice we consider alien to our culture. It is my position that there are matters of concern in the Bill that needs to be reviewed and reconsidered to make the Bill an improved one which is reflective and consistent with our current views on sanctions which must be more reformative than retributive”.
He stressed: “I wish to state that, in human rights advocacy and practice, there is a difference between Human Rights Protection and Human Rights Promotion. I have defended and protected the rights of many in my over 10years of human rights practice and advocacy, but I have not and will not in any way promote the rights of LGBTQ+ because as I have earlier stated I don’t believe there is human rights in the said practice. The fact that as a Lawyer or a Human Rights activist, I represent people in court, speak and fight for their rights does not mean a promotion of their acts. We protect people because it is our fundamental duty to do so whiles I stand for the promotion and protection of all the values espoused by the Bill”.
Ghana’s Speaker of Parliament is a known hardliner against rights of the LGBT community.
“This world was created by God as a society, is created for us to enjoy and commanded us to procreate and fill the world, now we know those who actually believe in God, now we know where religion actually started.
“This pandemic must be fought by all of us. I can tell you is worse than covid 19, now am happy our beloved country Ghana is together in this. The faint-hearted will soon be stranding to come back to join the fight. His Excellency the President has spoken, our traditional leaders have spoken, our religious leaders have spoken together, Ghanaians have spoken,” the Speaker said about the community last month in Parliament.
Source: Starrfm.com.gh