Parliament faced a deadlock over determining the appropriate penalty for individuals engaged in unnatural carnal knowledge within the LGBTQ+ community.

The Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill proposes criminalizing same-sex relations, as well as relations between a person and an animal or object, suggesting a penalty ranging from three to five years.

However, the Constitutional and Legal Affairs Committee recommended a maximum jail term of three years without specifying a minimum sentence.

The Committee Chairman elucidated the rationale behind the proposal on Tuesday, 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.”

Bill sponsor Sam George emphasized the importance of guidance on penalty units to determine the corresponding severity of the sanction.

Background:

The contentious LGBT bill, introduced on Tuesday, June 29, 2021, as a private member’s bill, involves eight MPs seeking to criminalize the promotion, advocacy, funding, and acts of homosexuality in Ghana.