No Room for Gays And Lesbians -Deputy AG

The Deputy Attorney General, Mr. Kwame Osei-Prempeh has stated that lesbianism and gayism remain criminal acts under the countries statutes.

He explained that charters and international conventions that recognize homosexualism do not override national laws. For that reason the Criminal Code of 1960, which outlaws homosexualism is incontrovertible, says the Dep. AG He was speaking in an interview with the media at the ongoing 41st Ordinary Session of the African Charter on Human People's Rights (ACHPR), where gay right activists accused the organizers of failing to put their rights on the table for discussion.

Hon. Prempeh said unnatural carnal knowledge is an illegal act under the Criminal Code as per section 104, and homosexualism, without any equivocation, is a form of unnatural carnal knowledge.

Section 104(2) explains, "Unnatural carnal knowledge is sexual intercourse with a person in an unnatural manner or with an animal."

"Should we allow people to have unnatural carnal knowledge with animals in the name of respect for fundamental human rights?" Hon Prempeh asked.

He emphasized that so far as Parliament has not amended Section 104 of the Criminal Code it holds sway in all circumstances.

One of the documents circulated at the NGOs preparatory meeting for the 41st Ordinary Session, "The Yogyakarta Principles: Principles on the Application of International Human Rights Law in Relation to Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity" argues that " All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. All human rights are universal, interdependent, indivisible and interrelated. Sexual Orientation and gender identity are integral to every person's dignity and humanity and must not be the basis for discrimination or abuse."

Sexual Orientation, according to the document, is understood to "refer to each person's capacity for profound emotional, affectional, and sexual attraction to, and intimate and sexual relations with, individuals of different gender or the same gender or more than one gender."

Last year there was a huge public outcry against a purported international conference of gays and lesbians in this country; the reason proffered was it was alien to Ghanaian culture, and government subsequently banned it.

The government said," homosexualism offends public morality and sensibilities."

"Government does and shall not condone any such activity which violently offends the culture, morality and heritage of the people of Ghana. Ghanaians were a unique people whose culture, morality and heritage totally abhorred homosexual, [gay] and lesbian practices and other forms of unnatural sexual acts," the statement banning the event said.

Presidents John Agyekum Kufuor, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria are violently opposed to homosexualism.

Last year, January 18, 2006, Nigeria took a decisive step against the incursion of homosexualism into the country announcing laws banning the same sex marriage and announced a five-year jail sentence for anyone who indulges in gay marriage or officiates at one.

President Mugabe attacks gays and lesbians, describing them in derogatory terms as "worse than dogs and pigs" and President Museveni observes that the act of homosexualism is "against the order of nature".

Similarly, President George Bush resisted pressure to legalize gay marriages in the United States in 2003, arguing that it is "unscriptural and unnatural". However, the Constitutional Court of South Africa legalized same-sex marriages earlier this year.