One Signature: How Ghana's Anti-LGBT Bill Balances Domestic Politics and International Pressure
Written by Tyler Alexander; Edited by Andrew Ma
Published on March 6th, 2025
Background
On February 28th, 2024, the Ghanaian parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Act, a bill intended to criminalize a wide array of LGBT activities. Even for a country with a poor record on LGBT rights, the bill is repressive: same-sex relations, heretofore vaguely defined as “unnatural carnal knowledge” by the law, are explicitly criminalized. So too is same-sex marriage made illegal, and any existing marriage between two people of the same sex made void.
President Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana.
Rather than just criminalize private same-sex activities, the bill significantly cracks down on LGBT advocacy and allyship. The bill disbands any LGBT group or association and prohibits the creation of any such group in the future. Any person who promotes or supports an act prohibited by the bill, or tries to change public opinion towards an act prohibited by the bill, is committing a criminal offense. The sentences are severe: a minimum of two months imprisonment for engaging in same-sex relations, same-sex marriage, or “holding out” (i.e, identifying) as a member of the LGBT community, a minimum of six months imprisonment for public shows of romance with a person of the same sex, and a minimum of five years imprisonment for LGBT advocacy. The bill makes it clear, in no uncertain terms, that the LGBT community is not welcome in Ghana.
Nevertheless, the bill is not yet law. While it has passed parliament, it does not go into effect until signed by the president of Ghana, which President Nana Akufo-Addo has not done. The bill is widely popular in Ghana, where LGBT rights are a hard sell. In a 2019 Afrobarometer poll, 93% of Ghanaians said that they would dislike having homosexual neighbors. When it was first introduced in 2021, a coalition of Presbyterian, Catholic, and Muslim religious leaders in Ghana expressed support for it. The National Democratic Congress (NDC), the main opposition party, has expressed its support, while Akufo-Addo’s own New Patriotic Party (NPP) has said that they do not support LGBT activities. Akufo-Addo himself has said that gay marriage will never be legal in Ghana while he is still president. The bill is a political shoo-in. Virtually all of Ghana would approve if Akufo-Addo signed it into law. So why hasn’t he?
The answer likely does not lie in domestic politics, which would prescribe that Akufo-Addo sign the bill. Rather, he has abstained from signing the bill for fear of international pushback. Specifically, Ghana faces the risk of reduced funding from the World Bank and economic sanctions from the U.S. if Akufo-Addo signs it into law.
Protestors outside the Ghanaian Supreme Court.
International and Domestic Challenges
Ghana’s finance minister has warned that Ghana risks losing out on $3.8 billion in World Bank funding over the next five to six years if the bill is made law. This projection is not unfounded. After a similarly repressive anti-homosexuality bill was passed in Uganda in 2023, the World Bank announced that no new public funding, including loans, would be extended to Uganda, stating that the Ugandan law “fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group's values”. The United States also penalized Uganda for passing the bill, announcing travel restrictions and sanctions on those deemed complicit in repressing human rights, ending Uganda’s eligibility for the African Growth and Opportunities Act, and reducing economic aid for Ugandan social programs.
Ghana wants to avoid an outcome like this, especially given its fragile economic situation. The bill has already attracted international ire. The United Nations has called the bill “deeply harmful”, urging Ghana to “uphold its obligations under international human rights law”. The State Department issued a statement after parliament passed the bill, saying that it was “deeply troubled” and that the bill would undermine Ghana’s traditional tolerance, peace, and human rights if made into law.
Officially, Akufo-Addo is waiting for two constitutional challenges to the bill to be resolved before he will sign it. The first lawsuit, brought before the Supreme Court by activist Amanda Odoi, argues that only the executive can introduce a bill that would incur a cost on the state (as policing the bill would cost money). The second lawsuit, filed by journalist Richard Dela Sky, argues that the bill is a violation of the Ghanaian constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech, expression, and association, and freedom from discrimination. On July 17th, 2024, the Supreme Court adjourned the case without setting a date for proceedings to continue, indefinitely deferring a constitutional ruling.
With all this said, the decision will not be Akufo-Addo’s to make for much longer. The Ghanaian presidential election will take place on December 7th, and Akufo-Addo has reached his term limit. The Supreme Court, by refusing to make a ruling, has effectively kicked the can down the road until after the election, meaning Akufo-Addo’s successor will be the one to decide the bill’s fate. Both major candidates seem likely, but not certain, to sign it. Former president and NDC candidate John Dramani Mahama has said that gay marriage and gender transition are against his Christian beliefs, but did not explicitly say that he would sign the bill if he became president. Akufo-Addo’s vice president and NPP candidate Mahamudu Bawumia said that his signature of the bill would be “automatic” if the Supreme Court rules the bill constitutional. Both men are presumably aware of the possible international consequences: Mahama has implied that Akufo-Addo’s reluctance to sign the bill may stem from not wanting to alienate foreign aid.
The Future of LGBT Rights in Ghana
Angel Maxine, Ghana’s only openly transgender musician, protesting the bill. She has since fled the country.
Ghana’s next president will inherit Akufo-Addo’s difficult position, and face the same considerations as he. While the World Bank can be expected to impose penalties on Ghana as it has Uganda, it is difficult to imagine that the incoming Trump administration will care as much, if at all, about the status of LGBT rights in Ghana. Perhaps Ghana’s next president, anticipating a muted or nonexistent U.S. reaction to the bill, will sign it into law.
If the bill does become law, it will erase what meager gains LGBT Ghanaians have eked out in recent years. Some LGBT Ghanaians have already fled the country, while those who cannot have gone into hiding for fear of being attacked. The LGBT community in Ghana was already facing challenges such as discrimination and inadequate access to healthcare, a situation that the bill is bound to make worse. Members of the community are experiencing worsening violence and persecution, as people believe the bill to have been made law when it was passed by parliament.
There is a slim chance that the Supreme Court will find the bill unconstitutional. Most recent legal victories for LGBT Africans have come through the courts rather than legislatures. High courts in Botswana and Mauritius decriminalized same-sex relations in 2021 and 2023 respectively, but a similar ruling in Ghana seems unlikely. On July 24th, just a week after the Supreme Court refused to rule on the bill itself, it upheld a colonial-era law criminalizing same-sex relations, suggesting that it will find the bill constitutional when the time comes.
While the Human Sexual Rights and Family Act is not certain to become law, much damage has already been done to the fabric of Ghana’s LGBT community. The government has signaled that it does not intend to extend them any rights, and has told wider Ghanaian society that it will not tolerate advocacy on their behalf. The persecution of LGBT people for the sake of political expediency is unfortunately common, and the fact that it can happen in Ghana, a country with an otherwise strong commitment to human rights and the rule of law, speaks to the limitations of democracies in guaranteeing rights to all.
None of this is to discount the agency of Ghanaian activists. They are not merely victims, and have taken a stand for their rights. On March 6th, shortly after the bill was passed, Ghanaians protested outside high commissions in South Africa and the U.K., calling upon President Akufo-Addo to reject it.
Nevertheless, the Human Sexual Rights and Family Act is a definite step back for human rights in Ghana, and its passage would be a serious blow to the freedom of LGBT Ghanaians to live their lives in dignity and peace. So too could it jeopardize Ghana’s fraught economic recovery, if the World Bank and U.S. decide to respond with sanctions. Ghana’s next president must weigh the consequences of signing the bill carefully, hopefully with the understanding that Ghanaians’ freedoms and prosperity are at stake.
