Ghana: Parliament passes a law tightening penalties against homosexual relations.

The Ghanaian Parliament adopted on Friday, May 29, 2026, the bill titled “on sexual rights and family values,” which provides up to three years in prison for anyone having homosexual relations and between three to five years for the “promotion, sponsorship, or intentional support of LGBT+ activities.” The text, drafted by Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, must now be signed by President John Dramani Mahama to come into effect.

This same text had already been unanimously adopted by Parliament in February 2024, but former President Nana Akufo-Addo, who was in office until January 7, 2025, did not sign the text before the end of his term, rendering it void and requiring a new review. The new parliament resulting from the December 2024 elections conducted this second vote on Friday afternoon. No numerical results from the vote were available at the time of publication.

In Ghana, same-sex relationships are already prohibited by a law from the colonial era, without any prosecutions being initiated on this basis so far. The new law introduces two distinct measures: the explicit codification of penalties and the creation of a standalone offense for the promotion of LGBT+ rights, the scope of which could include journalists, lawyers, or human rights organizations, is not precisely defined.

John Mahama had expressed his support for the bill during his presidential campaign and after his election. “I believe in the principles and values that there are only two sexes: male and female. And that marriage is between a man and a woman,” he stated shortly after taking office.

His predecessor Akufo-Addo had left the text pending without signing or formally rejecting it, a position interpreted by human rights organizations as an attempt to avoid diplomatic confrontation with Western donors. According to testimonies collected in Ghana in 2023, LGBT individuals reported being increasingly victims of violence and discrimination.

International Condemnations and Regional Framework

Human rights advocates and several international organizations have condemned the text. Amnesty International, from the very first version of the bill in 2021, had estimated that it violated the principles of equality and non-discrimination, the rights to freedom of expression and association, as well as the prohibition of torture enshrined in the Ghanaian Constitution of 1992 and in international human rights treaties ratified by Ghana. Human Rights Watch has called the law an infringement on fundamental rights.

The adoption of the text comes shortly after the tightening of penalties faced by LGBT+ individuals in Senegal, where a law adopted in mid-March 2026 doubled the penalties for homosexual relations from five to ten years in prison. Burkina Faso has also tightened its legal framework in the same direction during this same period, according to several regional sources.

Ghana is a signatory to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, two instruments that guarantee the right to privacy and protection against discrimination. The United Nations had already requested the Ghanaian government not to promulgate the law during its first passage in 2024. An eventual signature by Mahama would expose Ghana to litigation before regional and international jurisdictions, according to international law experts cited by Reuters and Al Jazeera.