A group of U.N. human rights experts sharply criticized a bill Aug. 12 that would further criminalize LGBTQ people and outlaw allyship in Ghana, and urged the country’s government to stop it from becoming law.
Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ issues, and 11 of his colleagues in a press release note the “Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill” that has been introduced in the Ghanaian Parliament “argues that any person who deviates from an arbitrary standard of sexual orientation or gender identity is immediately to be considered dangerous, sick or anti-social.”
“Such laws are a textbook example of discrimination,” they said.
Madrigal-Borloz and his colleagues in their press release added the bill “promotes harmful practices that amount to ill-treatment and are conducive to torture, such as so-called ‘conversion therapy’ and other heinous violations like unnecessary medical procedures on internet children, and so-called corrective rape for women.”
Madrigal-Borloz and nine other U.N. human rights experts in a letter they sent to the Ghanaian government expressed their concerns over the bill.
“We express our grave concern about the draft bill, which seems to establish a system of state-sponsored discrimination and violence against LGBTI persons of great magnitude,” reads the letter. “As such, the bill appears to constitute an immediate and fundamental breach of Ghana’s obligations under international human rights law.”
The letter notes the bill, among other things, “promotes unnecessary medical interventions on intersex children by offering incentives to parents to ‘realign’ the child to an ‘appropriate (sic) binary designation as determined by a medical practitioner.’” The letter also points out the measure “creates an enforcement system that would require any person witnessing any of the activities prohibited by the law to report them to the police ‘or in the absence of the police, political leaders, opinion leaders or customary leaders in the community.’”
“We respectfully urge your excellency’s government to take all measures necessary to withdraw the proposed bills from consideration,” reads the letter.
The U.N. Human Rights Council in 2017 appointed Madrigal-Borloz to succeed Vitit Muntarbhorn, who was the first independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ issues. The council in 2016 approved a resolution that created the position.
Samuel Nartey George, a member of Ghana’s National Democratic Congress party, and seven other conservative lawmakers on Aug. 2 officially introduced the “Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.” Lawmakers are expected to consider the measure again in October.
A Ghanaian court last week dropped charges against 21 LGBTQ activists who were arrested at a human rights workshop in May.
Tinashe Chingarande contributed to this story.
