Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, a key sponsor of the reintroduced Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025, has affirmed that there are no longer any legal or constitutional impediments to its passage into law. Speaking on Channel One Newsroom following the bill’s first reading in Parliament on Tuesday, October 21, Rev. Fordjour conveyed strong optimism that the current legislative process will be free from the delays and legal hurdles that stalled progress in the previous Parliament.
He emphasised that all contentious provisions and ambiguities within the bill have been thoroughly reviewed and resolved by the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, which has upheld that the proposed legislation does not contravene Ghana’s Constitution or international obligations. “Our confidence is rooted in the fact that every grey area, every controversial argument and opinion requiring judicial interpretation has been exhaustively addressed — right up to the Supreme Court,” he stated. According to Rev. Fordjour, the nation’s highest court has conclusively settled all concerns previously raised by critics.
“All those opinions and all those counter arguments have been settled, and the Supreme Court eventually held that no aspects of this bill or provision affront any part of the Constitution, nor does the bill infringe upon any international treaty or convention.” He added that with those legal matters out of the way, the path is now clear for the bill to be passed without further delays:
“For that, any dissenting view that was expressed by any stakeholder has been settled and the matter has been put in perspective without any doubt at all. So it is not expected that there are some outstanding issues to be determined on it for which it should suffer the plethora of legal suits that it did from the beginning. And for that, the expectation is that the processes would rather grind fast for us to be able to pass this bill.”
The reintroduction of the bill — which criminalises same-sex relationships, LGBTQ+ advocacy, transgender healthcare, and support for LGBTQ+ groups — comes after the earlier version lapsed following the dissolution of Parliament in early 2024. That version, although passed by Parliament, did not receive presidential assent. The 2025 bill is sponsored by ten MPs and has now gone through its first reading. Its sponsors remain hopeful it will be passed and signed into law within the current legislative session.
Source: Abigail Arthur
