What’s the context?
Ghana’s incoming president faces dilemma over signing the country’s strict anti-LGBTQ+ bill into force
Ghana’s incoming president, John Mahama, must weigh whether to approve a strict anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed by parliament, but left unsigned by his predecessor, that could jeopardise billions of dollars of financing from international creditors.
Here’s what you need to know.
What does the bill do?
The Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill is one of the strictest such measures in Africa.
If it becomes law, LGBTQ+ people in the West African country, already facing discrimination and marginalisation, could also be denied access to jobs, healthcare and housing.
Same-sex relations in Ghana are already punishable by up to three years in jail, but the bill would extend maximum sentences and add a slew of new offences, including identifying as LGBTQ+, or showing support for gay and transgender rights.
What is the status of the bill?
Ghana’s parliament unanimously passed the bill on Feb. 28, but President Nana Akufo-Addo never signed it into law.
Akufo-Addo said he was waiting for the outcome of legal challenges to the bill, but the courts have dismissed three of those and the final case is due to be decided in March.
That means the decision will now be left to Mahama who will be sworn in as president on Jan. 7.
What are the financial implications of the bill?
Ghana’s Finance Ministry said in March that presidential approval of the legislation could lead to the loss of $3.8 billion in World Bank financing over the next five to six years, and derail a $3-billion loan package from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
Without World Bank and IMF backing for Ghana, other international investors could also withdraw financing.
That would lead to huge financial problems for a country that only managed to restructure its debt last year after nearly two years of not being able to pay its creditors following an earlier financial crisis.
What has the president-elect said about the bill?
In January last year, Mahama said he was against same-sex marriage.
-“The faith I have will not allow me to accept a man marrying a man, and a woman marrying a woman,” he said.
In November, he told members of the clergy that being LGBTQ+ was a taboo that Western countries were pressurising African nations to accept in return for financial aid.
During the campaign for December’s general election, Mahama said same-sex relations went against his faith and culture and that he would strengthen laws against LGBTQ+ activities.
But days before the polls, when pressed by the BBC, Mahama would not say outright whether we sign the bill into force.
After his victory, Mahama told a delegation of clergy that “it is our hope that this president will sign the bill. If he doesn’t, it will expire, and the next parliament will have to address it again.”
What is Mahama’s record on LGBTQ+ rights?
As vice-president in 2011, Mahama said it was hard for authorities to address the higher rates of HIV/AIDS amongst men who have sex with men due to the stigma attached to them being open about their sexuality.
There is a very strong cultural hostility towards homosexuality in our society so often people are not willing to own up to their sexual orientation,” he said in an interview at Yale University. “We are trying to educate people to understand that we need to remove the stigma.”
But as president from 2012 to 2016, Mahama maintained Ghana’s prevailing conservative stance.
For instance, when there was uproar after he nominated Nana Oye Lithur, a human rights lawyer who had defended LGBTQ+ rights, as a minister, Mahama reiterated that he does not support gay rights, and that homosexuality is criminal in Ghana.
This story is part of a series supported by Hivos’s Free To Be Me programme.
(Reporting by Pelumi Salako; Editing by Jon Hemming and Sadiya Ansari.)
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