Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram, Samuel Nartey George has said that the anti-LGBTQ+ bill which has been with the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee of parliament since last year is now ready to be presented to the house for debate.
His disclosure comes at a time United States of America’s Vice President Kamala Harris who has been in Ghana as part of her tour of Africa has called for respect for the human rights of LGBTQ+ people.
In a joint press statement with President Akufo-Addo, she said the US considers issues relating to LGBTQ+ as human rights ones and any legislation whatsoever that seeks to inconvenience such people will not be countenanced.
The Bill proposes jail terms for people who engage in same-sex activities and various forms of support for the LGBTQ+ community.
According to Sam George, the Attorney General approves of the bill in its current form, hence there is no barrier to it being laid in parliament for debate and eventual passage into law.
“When we finished the deliberations, I asked the Attorney General a question if the bill in its current form infringes on the human rights of any Ghanaian, and he was happy with the bill. He was emphatic and stated that absolutely not. He wants me to tell the media that he supports the bill. The bill is expanding the frontiers of our legal jurisprudence. The Committee has finished deliberations, and it’s at the behest of the Chairman. So I believe that the final report of the Committee may be laid before the house rises,” citinewsroom.com quotes the lawmaker as saying.
Meanwhile, during the joint press conference with Kamala Harris, President Akufo-Addo, while answering a question from journalists, said that he trusts the parliament of Ghana to do good work on the bill without violating any human rights while not compromising of cultural values of the country.
