Parliament will withdraw LGBTQI bill – Humanist Association

The Humanist Association in Ghana has expressed confidence that the LGBTQI+ bill currently in Ghana’s Parliament will be thrown away since it is an affront on the minority group in the country.

In an interview with Starrfm, the Spokesperson for the Humanist Association of Ghana, Justice Okai Allotey observed that the first public hearing on the bill in Parliament has been enlightening because it exposes the motion attached to the bill as misleading.

According to him, anyone who watched the proceeding would have noticed that the debate has separated the substance from the noise.

“We have from the onset been calling on the Commission on Human Right and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ) and the Ghana AIDS Commission to debunk those data. Because we have looked at the data and the information that was put to the memo attached to the bill and we have realized that those are not the accurate information,” the Spokesperson disclosed.

He continued “We have believed in the Parliamentarians of Ghana, we know Parliament is a house of facts and records. So with the mountain of facts being shared they will not listen to it and not do a different thing, that will be disappointing to us. So we will try and give them the benefit of the doubt for them to interrogate the facts that will be out and we want the total withdrawal of the bill,” he stated.

Background

Parliament on Thursday, 11th November, 2021 began sitting on the Anti-LGBTQI Bill also known as the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, which was laid in the House on Monday, August 2, 2021, and read for the first time.

The Bill among other things is seeking to criminalize some activities of members of the LGBTQ Community in Ghana.

Private Legal Practitioner, Akoto Ampaw who appealed before Parliament’s Committee on Constitutional, Legal, and Parliamentary Affairs on behalf of a group of Concerned Ghanaian Citizens against the passing of the Bill has called on Parliament to reject the Anti-LGBTQI Bill, which he claims does not meet legal requirements as stipulated in the 1992 Constitution.

According to him, the Bill in its current form violates Article 1(1) (2):” which upholds the sovereignty of the people of Ghana in whose name and whose welfare the powers of Government shall be exercised in the manner and within the limits laid down in the Constitution”.

“Irrespective of the number of people who support the Bill, the legislation must meet the first provision of the constitution. If it does not by Clause (2) of Article 1 of that bill or legislation is void.”

Apostle Ofori Kuruagu of the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council in his argument to the Committee stated that Parliament as the representative of the people at all material times was expected to mirror the broad opinions of its constituents and where appropriate serve as a vehicle to satisfy the interest of the people whose mandate it represented through the vehicle of legislation.

He said the passage of the Anti-LGBTQI Bill would give eloquent expression to the sovereign will of the majority of the people which Parliament represented and a bold attempt from the dangerous notion that anything foreign is “good for the nation.”

“This nation is being inundated with all forms of foreign values…we see this bill as a bold attempt to disassociate Ghana from such a menace”, he added.

Source:Starrfm.com.gh