{"id":199730,"date":"2016-03-17T17:21:42","date_gmt":"2016-03-17T17:21:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=199730"},"modified":"2016-03-17T17:21:42","modified_gmt":"2016-03-17T17:21:42","slug":"scottish-mps-hit-hard-at-mahama-over-gay-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/03\/scottish-mps-hit-hard-at-mahama-over-gay-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Scottish MPs hit hard at Mahama over gay rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"r\" style=\"text-align: justify;\">Some Members of the Scottish Parliament have called on their government to\u00a0confront President John Dramani Mahama on Ghana&#8217;s alleged abuses \u00a0of its lesbian and gay citizens.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">An invitation to the President of Ghana to address (MPs) undermines the safety of the Scottish Parliament for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, according to opposition MPs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">[contextly_sidebar id=&#8221;sVZFBdPd7I4T3olIKZjGeBwtLIoZrmEa&#8221;]The MPs are joining with human rights campaigners to call on their government to confront President John Dramani Mahama about his abuses of lesbian and gay citizens.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mahama received muted applause from the Holyrood chamber as he listened to FMQs on Thursday morning, but a meeting with opposition leaders was cancelled.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">After the Scottish Parliament\u2019s Presiding Officer, Tricia Marwick, said she would \u201cextend the hand of friendship\u201d to Mahama, members of the Scottish Greens, including their co-convenor Patrick Harvie, who is gay, wrote to her on Wednesday to urge caution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">They said: \u201cWe believe that the Scottish parliament should be a place where everyone can feel safe. Yet the invitation to President John Dramani Mahama to address MPs can only undermine this, given his full support for the horrific discriminatory laws towards the LGBT community in his country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ghana is one of 75 countries around the world where it is still illegal to be gay, carrying a sentence of up to three years in prison.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element-rich-link--tag element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link-tag\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-tag\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-news--item \">While the Director of Stonewall Scotland, Colin Macfarlane, acknowledged \u201csome promising statements from President Mahama criticizing violence against LGBT communities\u201d, he went on to call for the Scottish government to recognize its \u201cimportant responsibility to help advance the protection of LGBT rights across the world\u201d.<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Responding to calls from opposition leaders, a Scottish Government Spokesperson confirmed that the first minister would \u201cshare her strong view that the Commonwealth values of humanity, equality and tolerance are universal values\u201d during the president\u2019s visit.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Naomi McAuliffe, Amnesty International\u2019s programme Director in Scotland, said her organisation received regular reports that LGBT people faced police harassment, while repressive attitudes towards LGBT Ghanaians meant they were vulnerable to discrimination and physical attacks. This was against a background of the use of torture and ill-treatment by police and intelligence services, alongside widespread violence against women and girls.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">McAuliffe said: \u201cWe understand opposition leaders and MPs choosing not to meet President Mahama during his visit to the Scottish Parliament as Ghana\u2019s human rights record has serious failings. However, we are not calling for a boycott of the visit as we view this as an opportunity to raise our concerns about LGBTI discrimination, violence against women and girls, and the use of torture. Nicola Sturgeon\u2019s commitment to raising \u2018values of humanity, equality and tolerance\u2019 is welcome and we look forward to hearing about any positive interventions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mahama\u2019s visit to Scotland will also entail him receiving an honorary degree from the University of Aberdeen on Friday.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">&#8211;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Source: Guardian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some Members of the Scottish Parliament have called on their government to\u00a0confront President John Dramani Mahama on Ghana&#8217;s alleged abuses \u00a0of its lesbian and gay citizens. An invitation to the President of Ghana to address (MPs) undermines the safety of the Scottish Parliament for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community, according [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Scottish MPs hit hard at Mahama over gay rights - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. 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