Wait on Supreme Court ruling before decision on assent of LGBT+ bill – What A-G told Akufo-Addo

It has emerged that the government’s chief legal advisor, the Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, advised President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo to withhold any action on the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill.

According to a letter dated March 18, 2024, and signed by Godfred Yeboah Dame, the Attorney-General, pointed to two separate lawsuits filed at the Supreme Court challenging the constitutionality of the bill recently passed by parliament.

The A-G further noted that the two interlocutory injunction applications were among others, asking the court to restrain the president from taking any action on the bill until the determination of their substantive cases.

“Respectfully, in light of the fundamental questions of constitutional significance raised by the two suits and the serious matters of public importance involved, I am of the considered opinion that it will be appropriate to accord unto the Supreme Court the opportunity to determine the propriety of assenting to the Bill pending the determination of the actions.

“In the circumstances, I am of the view that assenting to the Bill whilst the applications for interlocutory injunction filed in the two suits are pending will render the said applications otiose and undermine the authority of the Supreme Court to determine the issues raised in them.

“In the spirit of upholding the rule of law, as you are obliged to do, I will respectfully advise that, a decision to assent to the Bill be made after the determination of the applications for interlocutory injunction copies of which are enclosed herein,” the A-G advised.

Meanwhile, Nana Asante Bediatuo, Executive Secretary to the President in a recent letter to the Clerk of Parliament asked the office not to transmit the anti-LGBT+ bill to the president’s office.

He noted that the bill cannot be sent to the president while the two cases pending at the Supreme Court have not been resolved.

Parliament unanimously passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2024 (also known as the anti-LGBTQ+ bill) on Wednesday, February 28.

The bill, if assented to, prescribes between three to five years imprisonment to persons found guilty of promotion, funding, and advocating for LGBTQ+ activities prohibited under the act.

Also, persons who publicly identify themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, an ally, or pansexual face between two months and three years of imprisonment.

GA/SARA

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