[ 2021-02-27 ]

Ghana’s laws don’t criminalise LGBTQI – Fmr Amnesty Int’l boss
Former Country Director of Amnesty International
Robert Akoto Amoafo has descended heavily on
persons whipping up what he describes as hate
sentiments against lesbian, gay, bisexual,
transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTSI) persons,
insisting that nowhere in Ghana’s statutes is
the orientation criminalized.


“So, when we talk about lesbians, who are
lesbians? Do people understand who lesbians are?
Do people understand who transgenders are? And
what is the definition of these people in our
laws?” he asked.


Mr Amoako Akoto was contributing to discussions on
the rights of LGBTQI persons in Ghana on The Key
Points on TV3/3FM Saturday, February 27.


It comes in the wake of public uproar after the
group commissioned an office space in Accra. The
office has since been shut down.

Speaking on the issue, the former Country Director
of Amnesty International said there is nowhere an
LGBTQI person causes harm to another person by
their practice.

For him, it is about time Ghana reviewed its laws
as most of them are steeped in “colonial”
orientation, a situation far outdated over the
period.

“People must understand that unnatural carnal
knowledge only criminalises an activity of the
lesbian, gay, bisexual and, especially, to
understand, if you look how the law is, it talks
about unnatural carnal knowledge and when you
explain it in furtherance of the law, it talks
about the penetration of the sexual organ.”

But Ghana’s Criminal Offences Act Section 104(2)
defines ‘Unnatural Carnal Knowledge’ as “a
sexual intercourse with a person in an unnatural
manner or with an animal”.

It criminalises the act.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), James
Oppong Boanuh, has indicated that so far as
Ghana’s laws are concerned, the act is a crime
and they will enforce the laws as in the statute
books.

“Currently there are some laws on this issue and
we in the police will enforce the law as far as
the limits of the law are concerned and therefore
for as long as those laws remain in our statute
books we are going to enforce it,” he said in
the Central Region on Friday, February 26.

Source - 3 News

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