We will go to court if President Akufo-Addo assents to LGBTQ+ Bill - Prof. Gadzekpo

The Board Chair for the Centre for Democratic Development (CDD) Ghana, Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, says activists who are against the passing of the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, popularly known as the anti-gay Bill, will go to the Supreme Court to get redress since the Bill in its current state violates human rights.

Speaking on Accra-based 3FM on Thursday, February 29, 2024, in a recorded interview, the renowned Communications expert said, she was disappointed that Parliament had passed the anti-gay Bill.

The controversial legislation which prohibits lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) activities and criminalises their promotion, advocacy, and funding in the country, was unanimously passed by Parliament on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, after three long years since it was introduced on the floor of parliament.

The anti-LGBTQ bill if assented to by the President will, among other things, impose sanctions on willful promotion and engaging in LGBTQ activities in the country.

The bill proscribed a minimum sentence of six months and maximum three years for persons caught in the act of same-sex activities.

However, persons found guilty of willful promotion or advocating or funding the activities of LGBTQ will, upon conviction, face three years minimum and five years maximum imprisonment.

Prof. Gadzekpo believes that since President Akufo-Addo throughout his career had been a human rights lawyer, he would reconsider the anti-gay Bill before assenting to it.

For her, should President Akufo-Addo assents to the Bill in its current form, activists who are against the Bill would have no option than to seek justice at the country's apex court.

However, proponents of the anti-gay Bill have also served notice that they are prepared to face off in court with the Coalition of 18 Civil Society Groups, who are considering legal action if President Akufo-Addo signs the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill into law.

Parliament has come under criticism from international communities and civil society organisations for passing the anti-gay, many of these bodies have described the Bill as an instrument to violates the rights of minority groups.