Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin has urged African legislatures to defend the family as the foundation of national sovereignty, warning that laws that fail to reflect African values risk becoming ineffective and disconnected from the people they serve.

Delivering the keynote address at the opening of the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty, and Values in Accra on Wednesday in Parliament House, he told delegates from across the continent that true sovereignty “is born, nurtured, and sustained in the smallest unit of governance on Earth, the African family.”

He said, “Rt Hon Speakers of African Legislatures, Distinguished Members of Parliament… our mandate is to ensure that the laws we enact, the budgets we approve, and the policies we oversee reflect this reality.”

“If the family breaks under economic distress or cultural alienation, the state itself loses its structural integrity,” he added.

The 4th Conference hosted by Ghana’s Parliament from Wednesday June 3 to Saturday, June 6 is expected to produce a draft charter and legislative recommendations for African parliaments to domesticate.

It has more than 300 delegates from over 30 African countries.

Mr Bagbin however criticised the growing trend of tying development aid, trade deals, and cooperation to legal frameworks alien to African societies.

He argued that conditioning assistance on changes to domestic laws violated the United Nation (UN) Charter’s principle of sovereign equality.

“Our laws must look like the people they are written to protect. A law that does not resonate with the spirit, history, and moral conscience of the citizenry is a dead law,” the Speaker stated, citing Article 39 of Ghana’s 1992 Constitution which mandates the State to preserve traditional cultural values.

Rejecting the Western nuclear family model as too narrow, Mr Bagbin described the African family as “an intergenerational web of mutual responsibility” that had served as the continent’s oldest social safety net through economic crises and conflicts.

He urged parliaments to move beyond rhetoric and treat the family as a macroeconomic stakeholder.

As a result, he proposed actions tht included tax incentives for households caring for the elderly and budget priority for affordable housing, child nutrition, and maternal healthcare.

Addressing concerns of a clash between tradition and human rights, Mr Bagbin said the dichotomy was false.

He referenced the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which places the family at the center of rights protection.

“Defending African family values must never be used as a pretext for state-sanctioned violence, oppression, or the denial of basic human security,” he emphasised.

The Speaker called for laws that combat domestic violence, end harmful practices against girls and women, and protect widows and orphans.

On calling for continental action, Mr Bagbin proposed a unified response through an “African Family Values Charter” adopted by regional bodies including the Pan-African Parliament, ECOWAS Parliament, and East African Legislative Assembly.

He said a harmonised continental standard would prevent “forum-shopping” and resist external legal pressures.

He linked the Charter to the Africa Union’s (AU) Agenda 2063 Aspiration 5, which envisions “an Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, shared values, and ethics.”

Paying tribute to Uganda for hosting the first three conferences, Mr Bagbin urged delegates to translate resolutions into bills, budgets, and oversight.

“We do not need to become a carbon copy of other civilisations to be civilised.

“Let us march forward with courage, with intellectual clarity, and with unyielding faith in the genius of our people,” he urged.