Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

OutRage!- Letter to Pres' of Ghana-decrim gays..

pirate | 13.03.2007 16:19 | Gender | Repression | Social Struggles | London | World

gay rights group OutRage! sends open letter to the Presdient of Ghana who is visiting London.


OutRage! News Service. March 13.

Open Letter to President John Kufuor of Ghana

On the occasion of his State Visit to the UK

Call for the decriminalisation of homosexuality in Ghana and
government action against homophobic hate crime

LONDON, 12 March 2007

The following letter was delivered by LGBTI human right group OutRage!
to President Kufuor when he arrived in London today.

It was written in response to requests for protests from Prince Kweku
MacDonald, President, Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana (GALAG),
and from Mac-Darling Cobbinah Executive / National Director, Centre
for Popular Education and Human Rights Ghana.

Further information: OutRage! 020 7403 1790

-----------------------

President John Kufuor
Republic of Ghana

12 March 2007


Dear President Kufuor,

Welcome to London.

We extend warmest wishes to you and the people of Ghana, on behalf of
the lesbian and gay human rights group OutRage!.

We join with you this month to celebrate the 50th anniversary of
Ghana’s independence.

We hope that this year, as you celebrate Ghana’s freedom, you will
extend that freedom to your lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
(LGBT) citizens.

Ghana’s continuing criminalisation of homosexuality is a relic of
colonialism. This anti-gay law was imposed on the people of Ghana by
the British colonial administration in the nineteenth century. It sets
Ghanaian against Ghanaian, undermining national unity and dividing
people against each other.

The prohibition of consenting adult same-sex relations violates the
United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the African
Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which enshrine the principles of
equal rights and non-discrimination for all human beings.

As a free and independent nation, we hope your government will turn
its back on the hateful, divisive homophobia of the colonial era.

Specificially, we respectfully urge your government to:

1. Repeal the legislation that criminalises same-sex relations
2. Enact new laws to protect LGBT people against discrimination
3. Include LGBT Ghanaians in your HIV prevention programmes
4. Arrest the perpetrators of homophobic violence and protect the
victims
5. Begin a dialogue with the Gay and Lesbian Association of Ghana

All Ghanaians should enjoy independence and freedom.

We ask you to support individual liberty: the right of each person to
live their own life and make their own choices, providing they do not
harm others. A democratic state has no legitimate place in the
bedroom, nor should it seek to dictate who people love.

We urge you to follow in the footsteps of the African National
Congress government of South Africa, which pioneered Africa’s
commitment to the human rights of lesbian and gay people. The ANC
embraced gay equality in 1987. It later ensured that the
post-apartheid constitution became the first in the world to
explicitly prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation. Since
then, the ANC government has repealed the apartheid-era anti-gay
laws.

We note that the anti-apartheid heroes, Nelson Mandela and Archbishop
Desmond Tutu, are both strong supporters of lesbian and gay human
rights. They are demonstrating inspiring leadership, showing that
freedom is for all Africans, not just heterosexual ones.

We also appreciate that Kofi Annan, a great Ghanaian world statesman,
defended LGBT human rights when he was United Nations General
Secretary. His extension of spousal benefits to the same-sex partners
of UN employees signified a clear rejection of homophobic
discrimination.

We urge you to affirm in word and deed that every Ghanaian, whatever
their sexual orientation, is equal before the law.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Tatchell
Coordinator, OutRage! London

Kizza Musinguzi
African Affairs spokesperson, OutRage! London

---------------------

Appendix 1

The ban on same-sex relations violates international human rights law

The African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights affirms the equality
of all people:

Article 2 states: “Every individual shall be entitled to the enjoyment
of the rights and freedoms recognized and guaranteed in the present
Charter without distinction of any kind such as race, ethnic group,
colour, sex, language, religion, political or any other opinion,
national and social origin, fortune, birth or other status.”

Article 3 states: “Every individual shall be equal before the law.
Every individual shall be entitled to equal protection of the law.”

Article 26 states: “Every individual shall have the duty to respect
and consider his fellow beings without discrimination, and to maintain
relations aimed at promoting, safeguarding and reinforcing mutual
respect and tolerance.”

In the historic, landmark 1994 legal case of Toonen v Australia, the
United Nations Human Rights Committee, which monitors the compliance
of member states with the International Covenant of Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR), ruled that sexual orientation should be
understood to be a status protected from discrimination under these
ICCPR articles. States cannot therefore legitimately limit the
enjoyment of human rights on the basis of sexual orientation.

The UN Human Rights Committee has since urged states not only to
repeal laws criminalising homosexuality but to also enshrine the
prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation into their
constitutions or other fundamental laws.

Ends

pirate

Comments

Display the following comment

  1. African LGBTI on Peter Tatchell and Outrage — How comes Outrage! never dealt with this?
Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech