The Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values otherwise referred to as the anti-LGBTQ Bill, is set to be laid in Parliament before the House rises at the end of March 2023.
This follows a meeting between the Attorney-General and the Committee working on the Bill on Wednesday.
Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram and one of the sponsors of the Bill, Samuel Nartey George, disclosed these during an engagement with the media in Parliament on Thursday, February 23.
According to him, the Attorney-General has given the Bill his personal approval and indicated the Committee should be ready for the final consideration with the sponsors and laying on the House floor soon.
He disclosed concerns the Attorney-General raised in his memo dated 19th October, 2022 have been addressed as a consequence of the work of the Committee while about 85% of the memo also agrees with the Bill.
Citing an example, Sam George explained that the issue of human rights for people with a biological anomaly that the Attorney General raised had already been taken care of by the Committee during its deliberations.
He indicated that the Bill also addresses the issue of proper canal knowledge and rectifies the inadequacies of Section 104 of the Criminal Act about penetration as related to two women having sex.
The Attorney General, he said, also acknowledged how the Bill strengthened the Children’s Act as it criminalizes fostering and adoption of children in Ghana by persons who are LGBTQ+
He stated that on the issue of marriages, the Attorney General also agreed the Bill had provided clarity to the extent that marriage is between a man and a woman as husband and wife and not between two men or women as husband and wife.
“He said if the Marriage Act of Ghana does not recognize marriage between persons of the same sex and our Bill has a clause that deals with void marriages that specifies that even if you go and contract a homosexual marriage outside of Ghana when you get into the jurisdiction of Ghana, it will be null and void before the law and the law would have no recognition of that union. He thought that our bill was a welcome step.”
According to Sam George, the Committee has taken cognizance of the Attorne-General’s opinion and that of the various stakeholders and within the week the report of the Committee should be ready for final consideration.
“I can say that not that we have a light at the end of the tunnel, we have reached the end of the tunnel and we’ll be bringing that report hopefully before the end of March or before the House rises,” he added.