On Friday, May 29, Ghana’s Parliament considered and passed the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill 2025, after its re-introduction. The bill had previously passed in 2024 but failed to become law due to a lack of assent from the then president. As a result, it lapsed with the Eighth Parliament and required reintroduction and passage by the Ninth Parliament.
Both President John Dramani Mahama and the Speaker of Parliament Alban Kingsford Sumana Bagbin commented on the May 29 bill, urging its repassage due to procedural lapses.
Members of parliament introduced the Anti-LGBTQ+ bill 2025—referred to as the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill—with key sponsors coming from Ghana’s two dominant political parties, the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
The bill seeks to promote heterosexual relationships to uphold and preserve the family as a core unit of Ghanaian society. Its provisions include:
- Prohibiting individuals from publicly identifying as anything other than heterosexual, including gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, transexual, pansexual, or queer.
- Dismantling and barring LGBTQAP+ associations from forming.
- Invalidating and refusing to enforce marriages involving non-heterosexual individuals who hold themselves out to be LGBTQAP+.
- Banning the promotion and advocacy of prohibited activities associated with LGBTQAP+ groups.
- Imposing custodial sentences ranging of three years to 10 years for violations.
The bill’s memorandum premised its introduction on the opening of an LGBTQAP+ advocacy resource center in Ghana’s capital, Accra. The event sparked public uproar over a possible threat to Ghana’s present values, and the activities of LGBTQAP+ groups and individuals. A unanimous consensus was reached among Ghana’s recognized ethnic, cultural, and religious groups that the activities of such individuals and groups do not align with the sociocultural values held by the Ghanaian population.
Responding to this bold assertion, Ghanaian human rights activist, Ernest Yaw Ako, concurred with the findings of a 2023 analysis exploring same-sex relationship and the enduring practice of criminalising homosexuality in Ghana. Specifically, he concluded that same-sex relationships co-existed harmoniously with heterosexual relationships in pre-colonial times in Ghana and across Africa. Thus, he asserted that the Parliament’s attempt to recriminalize homosexuality in the 21st century reinforces and strengthens the colonial structures of domination.
Another key concern among human rights activists is whether Ghana’s proposal to curtail freedoms for LGBTQAP+ individuals to publicly and privately identify as such, form associations, promote and advocate for LGBTQAP+ activities, marry, and engage in sexual intercourse defeats human rights instruments.
Ghana is a United Nations (UN) member and signatory to several UN treaties, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). The country is also a party to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter).
The underpinning of these human rights treaties is that the rights outlined within are inherent to all humans (inseparable from the nature of humans), inalienable (cannot be transferred or surrendered), equal and non-discriminatory with respect to race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. In this vein, any restrictions placed on the rights of persons who identify as LGBTQAP+ members are discriminatory and infringe on their fundamental human rights.
The question that follows is whether fundamental human rights are absolute. A look into human rights provisions included in the ICCPR, ICESCR, and the African Charter reveals that human rights are not absolute under Article 4 of these treaties. Accordingly, restrictions are permitted given the exigencies of the situation or for the purpose of promoting the general welfare in a democratic society, insofar as such rights are not arbitrarily curtailed (i.e., deprivation without reason or outside established rules and regulations).
The ICCPR further clarifies that the following rights are non-derogable under international law: the right to life; freedom from torture and slavery; freedom from restriction due to inability to fulfill a contractual obligation; the right not to be retroactively charged with a criminal liability; the right to recognition as a person; and the freedom of religion, thought, and conscience.
It is important to note that Article 18(2) of the ICCPR—which borders on the freedom of religion, and is not subject to restrictions under Article 4—states that, “Freedom to manifest one’s religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations as are prescribed by law and are necessary to protect public safety, order, health, or morals or the fundamental rights and freedoms of others.”
Roscoe Pound, in his popular concept of law as a tool for social engineering, grounds the legitimacy of legal systems on the capacity to respond to the evolving expectations of the public and to reflect the moral sense of the community.
In an open address, the current president, His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, stated that if the Parliament of the people of Ghana endorses and votes on the bill, he will give his assent for the bill to become law.
