Audio By Carbonatix
Parliament on Tuesday, October 25, 2021, will resume after it adjourned sitting on August 10, 2021.
This will be the third meeting of the first session of the Eighth Parliament.
The House is expected to, among other things, consider many bills that have already been laid in Parliament and referred to various committees for consideration and report.
They include the Promotion of Proper Human Sexuality and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021, the Criminal Offences (Amendment) Bill, 2021 and the Office of the Special Prosecutor (Amendment) Bill, 2021.
The Private Member’s bill was laid on August 3, 2021, and seeks to criminalise the activities of lesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI), as well as individuals and organisations that advocate or promote the activity in the country when passed.
Since its introduction, the bill had generated a public debate from different groups, including academia, clergy, and civil society organisations.
While many religious institutions and some MPs are advocating for the bill to be passed into law, other campaigners are against the bill indicating that it will infringe on the human rights of people in the LGBTQ+ community and subject them to abuse and violence.
Also, concerns have been raised to the effect that it will generate hate from the international community.
President Akufo-Addo has also added his voice to conversations on the matter.
During an interview on Peace F M, the President said he was impressed with the ongoing expression of different ideas on the anti-homosexuality bill.
He added that he is not pressured by the current debate on the bill and believes that the parliamentary committee on constitutional, legal, and parliamentary affairs would carefully consider the 130 memoranda submitted before it and come to some consensus.
He explained that all that was happening was to ensure that the process is conducted respectably.
So far, both parties on each side of the aisle in Parliament have publicly thrown their weight behind the bill's passage but agreed on the need for some amendments to be made in the bill to fine-tune it ahead of passage.
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