July 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
Ghana’s Supreme Court has rejected a request for an injunction that sought to prevent the country’s Parliament from passing what is known as the anti-LGBTI bill.
A nine-member panel, led by the president of the Supreme Court, Judge Gertrude Torkornoo, has unanimously held that the plaintiff has failed to convince the court to grant her the injunction, reports the Ghanaian newspaper ‘Graphic’.
Tokornoo has pointed out that the court is not in favor of imposing an injunction on a project that is not completed by the lower house. The plaintiff is Amanda Odoi, a researcher at the Center for Gender Research, Advocacy and Documentation at the University of Cape Coast, who claimed that such a measure would affect donor aid to the collective.
Ghana’s Parliament gave its backing in early July to a proposed amendment to the Promotion of Adequate Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Act, which would increase sentences for people who identify as members of the LGTBI community to three years, and ten those of those who defend the rights of these people.
This proposal received criticism from national and international civil organizations for violating the rights guaranteed by the Constitution. Several countries on the continent have recently opted to toughen penalties for homosexual acts.
