Private legal practitioner and member of Coalition of Lawyers, Academics and other Professionals, says the Coalition's call for Parliament to reject the proposed Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, has no relation with members' personal preference for same-sex activities.
Mr Akoto Ampaw made this known during an interview with Evans Mensah on JoyNews' PM Express.
According to him, the mandate of the coalition is to ensure that the rights of every citizen, be it homosexual or not, are protected, hence the recent initiative.
"Our position as a group is that every person who is a human being is entitled to certain basic rights and that what the bill is doing is launching an assault on the rights of a particular group in our society.
"Our position has nothing to do with our personal preference or not for homosexual activities. Our position is a principled position that we take to defend the rights of every person in Ghana and subject to the public interest," he said on Tuesday.
He further stated that the decision of two consenting adults in their sexual life is not of concern to society and its inhabitants.
"We are saying that if two consenting adults have this relationship, it is no business of society, even if I, Akoto Ampaw, may not like it."
The Coalition of Lawyers, Academics and other Professionals together with the Human Rights Coalition have submitted two different memorandums requesting that Parliament throws out the Anti LGBTQ Bill.
The Human Rights Coalition petition signed by the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Ghana Centre for Democratic Development, Dr. Kojo Pumpuni Asante on behalf of 9 groups including Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability, and Alliance for Equality and Diversity said the said bill is in direct conflict with a number of constitutionally-protected fundamental freedoms and human rights.
Also, the Coalition argues that the provisions of the Bill are incompatible with a number of international human rights instruments to which Ghana is a State Party.
“It is the considered position of the Human Rights Coalition that the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021 is irredeemably flawed, unconstitutional and needless. It does not address any pertinent cultural, socio-economic or political challenge the country faces, as Private Member Bills were envisioned to address," it concluded.
The Coalition of Lawyers, Academics and other Professionals requesting same stated that the bill should be rejected by the Parliamentary Select Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, and by Parliament as a whole as it criminalizes dissenting view and expressions contrary to the words ‘freedom and justice’ “that emblazon our coat of arms."
But in response, MP for Ningo Prampam, Sam Nartey George, who is part of the eight legislators that officially presented the bill to the House said majority of Ghanaians do not want to tolerate same-sex relationships or people with different sexual orientations.
“We are not ready to tolerate it, that is who we are, our people say they don’t want it. These personalities do not hold the torch, whatsoever, to the strength of the collective will of the majority of Ghanaians and their personal agendas will not override the desire of the majority of the people,” he told Ayisha Ibrahim on The Pulse.
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