5 days ago

Ghana's new bill criminalising LGBTQ+ activities will undergo scrutiny before it is officially approved, the president has said.

Speaking during a visit to the UK, John Mahama said his legal council and attorney general would "sit on it because it was a private members' motion... [and] not a government bill".

"We will look at it and make sure that everything is in order," Mahama said, adding that the bill would be referred to the Council of State - his advisors - if there were any problems.

Since coming into power last year, Mahama has been pressured by religious leaders to strengthen anti-gay measures, which ban same-sex relationships under laws dating from the British colonial era.

Discussing the bill during a question-and-answer session at the Chatham House think tank in London on Monday, Mahama also said there were some procedural lapses in its passage, which are being addressed by the Speaker of parliament.

It is the second time such legislation has been backed by MPs.

A similar bill was first introduced to parliament in August 2021 after an LGBTQ+ resources centre was shut down in the capital, Accra.

Mahama's predecessor, former President Nana Akufo-Addo, failed to give his assent to that version of the bill before leaving office last year.

When it passed in 2024, it was challenged by multiple lawsuits at the Supreme Court, which Akufo-Addo used as a reason for not approving it.

The bill was reintroduced in parliament this year by a cross-party group of MPs.

Parliamentary members of Ghana's minority party said they preferred the version of the bill passed in 2024, claiming that amendments to the current legislation have watered it down.

''The bill appears, and not only appears, substantially has lost the force and the bite and the thrust, the deterrence, the efficacy that it contained and carried in 2024," minority spokesperson John Ntim Forjour explained.

The current version exempts punishment for legal, healthcare and media professionals who provide medical treatment and other services for gay people, or report on LGBTQ+ news.

Meanwhile, anyone who identifies as an "ally" - a supporter of LGBTQ+ people - could face a prison sentence.

Both forms of the legislation have been widely criticised by rights groups for infringing on the rights of sexual minorities.

Human Rights Watch recommended the bill be abandoned in a formal submission to the constitutional and legal affairs committee scrutinising the legislation in the capital, Accra.

But advocates of the bill argue it will help preserve Ghanaian family values.

Several African countries have cracked down on LGBTQ+ rights in recent years.

Uganda introduced a death penalty for certain same-sex acts in 2023.