Speaker of Parliament, Alban Bagbin, has given the clearest indication that the House will pass the controversial Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill before the 2024 election.
Mr Bagbin gave the assurance in a media engagement on Friday, October 28, 2022.
“Sexual Rights and Human Values bill that is being handled by the Committee, definitely we will pass it before the next election, we will pass it,” he said.
The Speaker had already asked the Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs Committee working on the Bill to expedite work in presenting its report to the house for debate.
The bill seeks to criminalise Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ+) activities in the country.
In August 2021, eight parliamentarians jointly submitted a Private Member’s Bill to push for same-sex marriage to be criminalised.
The proponents also want the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality to be forbidden in the country.
Since the Bill was made public, opposers have argued that should it be passed into law, it will be in violation of the fundamental human rights of individuals who identify with the group.
But Mr Bagbin said: “When we talk about human rights, we are talking about things that will add value to the human being by way of creating opportunities, of given equal rights for all of us. That is what we call human rights. Anything negating from that cannot be a right. Don’t forget that rights go with responsibilities and duties go with obligations.”
The Bill is currently with the Parliamentary Committee that has since called on citizens to submit documents stating their positions.
With over 124 memoranda from the public over the anti-LGBTQI+ Bill, the Committee has been occasionally holding public hearings on it.
Sponsors of the bill have since lamented the delay in the passage of the bill.