The Member of Parliament for North Tongu in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, says foreign missions cannot use visa restrictions as a bait to shut Members of Parliament up with respect to the passage of the ‘Promotion Of Proper Human Sexual Rights And Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021’.
The ‘Promotion Of Proper Human Sexual Rights And Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2021’, which is yet to be considered by parliament, seeks to unequivocally criminalise LGBTQI+ activities.
According to the bill, people of the same sex who engage in sexual intercourse are “liable on summary conviction to a fine of not less than seven hundred and fifty penalty units and not more than five thousand penalty units, or to a term of imprisonment of not less than three years and not more than five years or both.”
The bill also proposes that a person who, by use of media, technological platform, technological account or any other means, produces, procures, markets, broadcasts, disseminates, publishes or distributes a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, or a person uses an electronic device, the Internet service, a film, or any other device capable of electronic storage or transmission to produce, procure, market, broadcast, disseminate, publishes or distribute a material for purposes of promoting an activity prohibited under the Bill, commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a term of imprisonment of not less than five years and not more than ten years.
Some persons have argues that the diplomatic community will use visa to intimidate the MPs who are in support of the bill.
Commenting on the use of Visa to intimidate members of Parliament, Member of Parliament for North Tongu in the Volta Region, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa noted that it would be most primitive, an unmitigated affront and a grave assault on our sovereignty for any country to use visa considerations as a weapon to influence the decisions of duly elected Ghanaian lawmakers.
The lawmaker called on Ghana’s Foreign Ministry to serve notice that the principle of reciprocity will apply to any nation that embarks on this reckless and provocative path.
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“It is most primitive, an unmitigated affront and a grave assault on our sovereignty for any country to use visa considerations as a weapon to influence the decisions of duly elected Ghanaian lawmakers.
“Our Foreign Ministry must promptly serve notice that the principle of reciprocity will apply to any nation that embarks on this reckless and provocative path,” the lawmaker wrote on Facebook.
A group of Professors and human right activists have, however, opposed the bill, describing it as undemocratic.
The group says the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, when passed into law, would erode a raft of fundamental human rights, as enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
The group who are against the passage of the bill include Mr Akoto Ampaw; author, scholar and former Director of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, Prof. Emerita Takyiwaa Manuh; a communications and media expert, Prof. Kwame Karikari; the Dean of the University of Ghana (Legon) School of Law, Prof. Raymond Atuguba, and a former Dean of the University of Ghana School of Information and Communication Studies, Prof. Audrey Gadzekpo.
Ghana | Atinkaonline.com | Vivian Adu Boatemaa | [email protected]