African lawmakers vow new anti-LGBT bills after Ghana conference

Lawmakers from more than a dozen African countries left Accra with a pledge to draft new bills restricting LGBT rights, turning Ghana’s latest crackdown into a regional template. The push grew out of the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty, where activists and legislators from across Africa and Europe linked anti-LGBT policy to sovereignty, culture and family values.

The conference in Accra ran from June 3 to June 6 and brought together representatives from 20 African countries, according to Parliament of Ghana. Ghana News Agency said more than 300 delegates from over 30 countries were expected. At the close of the meeting, African MPs adopted an Accra Declaration and advanced work on an African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values, with Ghanaian reporting saying 20 countries endorsed the draft charter while South Africa and Mozambique declined to adopt it.

The gathering had strong political backing at home. Julius Debrah, Ghana’s chief of staff, opened the conference on behalf of President John Dramani Mahama, and Speaker Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin said the event was meant to consolidate parliamentary consensus around the charter. The messaging was clear: the fight over LGBT rights was being cast not only as a domestic matter, but as part of a broader regional project with lawmakers trying to build a shared legislative playbook.

That playbook already has a test case in Ghana. Parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill again on May 29 after an earlier version cleared the legislature in February 2024 but lapsed when parliament dissolved before the election. Mahama said on June 1 and June 2 that the bill still faced legal and procedural review before it could receive assent, a reminder that the measure is not yet law. The bill would impose prison terms of up to 10 years for people who “promote, sponsor, or advocate” LGBTQ+ acts, ban funding and sponsorship for related activities, and create a duty to report prohibited acts. Reuters-linked reporting also said it would amend the Extradition Act of 1960 to make offences under the law extraditable.

Human rights groups have warned that the Ghana bill goes far beyond symbolism. Human Rights Watch condemned it as dangerous and a threat to nondiscrimination and free expression. The Accra conference now gives anti-LGBT lawmakers across the region a venue, a network and a legal model, raising the risk that a single national crackdown could accelerate a wider rollback of rights across West Africa and beyond.