According to him, the human rights arguments often advanced for such rights are not tenable.

[contextly_sidebar id=”O7Bu7GWdx6wHYgL6aF0CRN5vicBrH0aF”]Addressing a group of religious leaders who paid a courtesy call on him, Prof Oquaye insisted that the current crop of parliamentary leadership would not endorse an act that majority of Ghanaians abhor.

“If you tell me that a man must sleep with a man so as to show his human rights for Ghana, I can assure you that our Parliament is a real micropause of the rule of Ghana. Ghanaians do not support gay rights and nobody is going to make any law that will support this kind of thing.”

‘We’re fed up with demands for gay rights’

This is not the first time the Speaker has expressed his reservations about promoting gay rights in Ghana.

In July 2017, Prof. Oquaye warned that leaders in countries like Ghana would not countenance the aggressive push by external forces to accept acts such as homosexuality, bestiality among others.

His caution followed a courtesy call by Amnesty International, where among other things, they made demands including the scrapping of the death penalty from the statute books.

At that encounter, the Speaker stated that African leaders were getting tired of some of the demands with regards to homosexuality on the basis of human rights.

“Following what Tony Blair said which I personally wrote him a letter that if we do not go the homosexual way, it was going to affect their aid to us. Honestly in view of these developments, we Africans are also concerned about certain things that may appear really intellectual …It is becoming a human right in some countries. The right to do homosexuality. The right for a human being to sleep with an animal. We are tired of some of these things and we must be frank about it. ..I think all these matters need to be seriously interrogated …,” the Speaker had said.

‘Legalizing homosexuality not a pressing issue’

In November 2016, President Nana Akufo-Addo had said a change in the law to decriminalize homosexuality is not of concern to Ghanaians at present.

The President, once a human rights activist and a lawyer, had however stated that if activism in favour of the legalization of homosexuality heightens, that could trigger a change in Ghana’s laws.

He made this assertion in an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera.

Without making any definite pronouncement on the issue during the interview, President Akufo-Addo had stated that any possible change will only come after a strong concerted push for LGBT rights from some sections of the public.

“For these socio-cultural issues, I don’t believe that in Ghana so far, a sufficiently strong coalition has emerged which is having that much impact on public opinion that will say; change it,” he stated.

Scottish MPs hit hard at Mahama over gay rights

In 2016, some Members of the Scottish Parliament called on their government to confront John Dramani Mahama, who was President at the time, on Ghana’s alleged abuses of its lesbian and gay citizens.

Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International’s programme Director in Scotland had said her organisation received regular reports that LGBT people faced police harassment.

Ghana is one of 75 countries which consider homosexuality as illegal.

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By: Marian Ansah & Duke Mensah Opoku/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post We won’t make laws to promote gay rights – Speaker appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

[contextly_sidebar id=”q1iaFZifUJvVvM0dSAEPtzNXZGU4wUsx”]His caution follows a courtesy call on him today [Tuesday] by Amnesty International, where they made demands including a scrapping of the death penalty from the statute books.

But the Speaker said African leaders are getting tired of some of these demands on the basis of human rights.

“Following what Tony Blair said which I personally wrote him a letter that if we do not go the homosexual way, it was going to affect their aid to us. Honestly in view of these developments, we Africans are also concerned about certain things that may appear really intellectual …It is becoming a human right in some countries. The right to do homosexuality. The right for a human being to sleep with an animal. We are tired of some of these things and we must be frank about it. ..I think all these matters need to be seriously interrogated …,” said the Speaker.

Scottish MPs hit hard at Mahama over gay rights

In 2016, some Members of the Scottish Parliament called on their government to confront John Dramani Mahama, who was President at the time, on Ghana’s alleged abuses of its lesbian and gay citizens.

Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International’s programme Director in Scotland had said her organisation received regular reports that LGBT people faced police harassment.

Ghana is one of 75 countries which consider homosexuality as illegal.

–

By: Marian Ansah & Duke Mensah Opoku /citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @EfeAnsah

The post We’re fed up with demands for gay rights – Speaker appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Police said they were held because their action was unauthorised.

The activists said more than two million people had signed the petition to investigate alleged torture and detentions of gay people in the Russian region of Chechnya.

Chechen officials have denied that gay people even exist in the republic.

Last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin backed an inquiry into the reported crackdown on gay people in Chechnya, in the North Caucasus.

Earlier this month German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged the Russian authorities to help protect gay rights.

On Thursday, four Russians and an Italian national were held as they tried to deliver a printout of the petition to the prosecutor general’s office.

They also carried huge empty boxes, symbolising online signatures they had collected in protest against the alleged crackdown, a BBC Russian reporter says.

The petition was signed “by more than two million people around the world, more than the entire population of the Chechen republic,” the Russian LGBT Network said.

It said they were demanding “an unbiased investigation of illegal detentions of hundreds of people in Chechnya because of their homosexuality”.

Chechnya’s strongman leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, said last week he was ready to co-operate with Russia’s federal authorities on the issue.

But Mr Kadyrov repeated recent assertions that there were no “people of non-traditional orientation” (a term sometimes used to describe LGBT people in Russia) in the predominantly Muslim republic.

Chechen officials also say the local police have not received any official complaints from alleged victims.

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Source: BBC

The post Gay rights petitioners detained in Russia appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.