Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, the board chair of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (GDC-Ghana), has urged President Akufo-Addo to vote against the Appropriate Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill.
According to Prof. Gadzekpo, the measure infringes against fundamental human rights guaranteed by the Constitution, such as the freedom of expression and association, academic freedom, participation in processions, equality, and nondiscrimination.
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Prof. Gadzekpo stressed that protecting rights and freedoms is essential to constitutional democracy during a press conference on human rights and a rights-based strategy for assisting sexual minorities in Ghana.
She emphasized the importance of the matter for all Ghanaians and cautioned that changing these rights could imperil the country’s democratic values.
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“Once our pillars of democracy rest to prevent the tyranny of the majority, depending on where we find ourselves, and on any given issue, we can all experience the feeling of being minorities. The rights guarantee in the constitution is therefore our only protector from majoritarian tyranny.
“Human rights are not dependent on majority approval or disapproval, therefore the assertion by the proponents of the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill that because the majority of Ghanaians are allegedly in favour of the bill, justifies its passage into laws is untenable. Ghana is a secular and multi-religious country.”
