Parliament faced challenges reaching a consensus on the punishment for LGBTQ+ individuals engaging in unnatural carnal knowledge under the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
The proposed legislation criminalizes same-sex activities, proposing a penalty of 3 to 5 years.
However, the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee suggested a jail term of up to 3 years without specifying a minimum sentence, citing various considerations in support of this proposal on December 12, 2023.
“Most of the religious bodies were supporting the fact that they would give people who are prepared to go through reforms, the opportunity to go through. If we make a strict law that if you are found guilty, or you practice this, you don’t have an option. Mr. Speaker, we don’t have a community service that would have been more severe than giving the person a custodial sentence, because the society will look down upon you.
“But to caution you or to give you deserve imprisonment or imprisonment, if we leave it to the discretion of the judge, they are also members of this society, they are learned, and depending on the circumstances, that’s why I am comfortable if we give the upper limit without saying that the person must be imprisoned as a minimum requirement.”
A sponsor of the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, and Ningo-Prampram MP, Sam George, emphasized the importance of seeking advice on the penalty units to be imposed on offenders.
“We should then get advice on what the minimum penalty or 750 units is concurrent with, is it three months or six months? So we have a lower limit also for custodial sentence,” he said on the floor.
But the Speaker interjected, saying that there was already a law on equivalence on penalty units and therefore “that will apply.”
After extensive deliberations, the Speaker deferred the questions related to the LGBTQ+ bill to parliamentary drafters. The intention is to draft a detailed form of the discussions that accurately reflects the perspectives and intentions of various legislators. The bill, led by eight Members of Parliament, seeks to criminalize the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality in Ghana.