Parliament of Ghana Approves Bill Criminalizing LGBT Identity

Parliament of Ghana has approved a bill that would criminalize identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. The legislation now awaits ratification by President John Dramani Mahama. The proposed law goes further than the country’s existing colonial-era ban on same-sex relationships.

The bill approved by Parliament actually implements a tiered penalty system. While engaging in same-sex intercourse or public displays of affection carries up to 3 years of imprisonment, the bill imposes far harsher penalties of 6 to 10 years in prison for anyone who promotes, sponsors, advocates, or distributes material related to LGBT activities.

It also requires citizens to report suspected prohibited acts to the police, extending enforcement into private relationships and personal associations. Allies face potential punishment as well, although legal, media, and healthcare professionals are exempted when reporting on LGBT issues or providing services.

Reverend John Ntim Fordjour, the member of parliament who sponsored the bill, stated that the measure protects Ghanaian family and cultural values. He described the new provisions as making existing laws more robust, encompassing, and stringent in addressing LGBT practices. Rights groups have criticized the bill, warning that it endangers the lives of LGBT people by encouraging surveillance and denunciation among citizens.

President Mahama now holds the decisive power to sign the bill into law or allow it to stall. Since taking office, Maham has faced pressure from religious leaders to strengthen anti-gay measures. He has publicly affirmed his belief that only two genders exist, man and woman, and that marriage is between a man and a woman. This latest parliamentary vote revives a similar 2024 bill that passed but ultimately did not become law after the previous president withheld his signature amid legal challenges.

The Ghanaian Ministry of Finance explicitly warned that enacting this legislation jeopardizes billions of dollars in international financing, including an estimated $3.8 billion in World Bank funding over five to six years.

This development in Ghana reflects a wider pattern across Africa. Roughly 31 to 32 out of the continent’s 54 countries currently criminalize homosexuality, with penalties and enforcement varying significantly by region.

Northern Africa maintains strict laws often rooted in morality provisions and Islamic traditions, where countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and others penalise same-sex acts through fines, imprisonment, or broader public order statutes.

Western Africa shows a recent trend toward tighter restrictions, including Ghana’s identity-focused bill and Senegal's National Assembly adopted an amendment to Article 319 of its Penal Code on March 11, 2026 (signed into law on March 27, 2026), which officially doubled the maximum penalty for consensual same-sex acts to 10 years imprisonment and criminalized promotion and funding. Parts of Nigeria, particularly northern states governed by Sharia law, impose the death penalty for same-sex acts.

Eastern Africa includes some of the harshest measures. Uganda’s 2023 law allows the death penalty for aggravated cases, while several neighbouring countries retain long prison terms. Central Africa largely follows colonial-era criminalization with active enforcement in places such as Cameroon.

In contrast, Southern Africa stands apart as the most progressive region. South Africa prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation in its constitution, recognizes same-sex marriage, and provides strong legal protections. Several other southern nations, including Botswana, Mozambique, and Angola, have decriminalized same-sex acts in recent years.

Islam, particularly through the application of Sharia law in Muslim-majority countries or regions, remains a significant driver of the most severe penalties, including corporal and capital punishment in jurisdictions such as Mauritania, northern Nigeria, and parts of Somalia. While the death penalty for consensual same-sex acts exists or is possible in a limited number of places, actual executions remain relatively rare.

This growing tendency toward stricter criminalization and broader enforcement across much of the continent signals a difficult and somber future for LGBT communities in Africa. Individuals face heightened risks of legal persecution, social ostracism, family rejection, and violence. These conditions are expected to accelerate migration from African countries to Western nations, where legal safeguards and greater social acceptance provide safer environments for those seeking refuge.

As Ghana’s bill awaits President Mahama’s decision, the outcome will further shape both the domestic landscape and the broader regional trajectory on LGBT rights.

Source: DPN, News outlets, Staff, AI, May 29, 2026

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."
— Oscar Wilde

Death Penalty News For a World without the Death Penalty

Comments

Florida | Jury recommends death sentence for Jeffrey Crum in killing of 12-year-old girl

BROOKSVILLE, Fla. — A Hernando County jury has recommended the death penalty for a 65-year-old man who was found guilty last week of raping and killing 12-year-old Jennifer Odom. Sentencing for Jeffrey Crum was held this week. Crum abducted Odom in 1993 after she stepped off her school bus in Pasco County. Her body was found in a Hernando County orange grove six days later.

Hanging of Osaka Arsonist is Japan’s First Execution Under Takaichi Government

As a majority of the international community has abolished capital punishment. Japan and the U.S. are the only two countries in the Group of Seven leading industrialized nations that put people to death. The execution of Takami Sunao—an arsonist whose 2009 attack in Osaka killed five—on August 21, 2026, was Japan’s first use of capital punishment in just over a year. Over a Decade from Sentencing to Execution Takami Sunao was executed on August 21, 2026 , for a 2009 arson attack at an Osaka pachinko parlor that killed five people. In July 2009, Takami poured gasoline on the floor of a pachinko parlor in Osaka and set it alight, killing 5 customers and staff members and injuring 10 more. While the defense argued that he was in a state of diminished capacity, the Supreme Court finalized his death sentence in February 2016. The execution took place 17 years after the initial crime and 10 and a half years after the death sentence was finalized.

Cartoons about Capital Punishment

More cartoons about capital punishment HERE

Spared execution eight times, oldest inmate in US dies at 101 after 76 years behind bars

Francis Clifford Smith was given his last meal eight times. But after being spared execution each time, he went on to be regarded as the longest-serving prisoner in the US before dying in June at 101 years old. Convicted of murder in 1950 when he was 25, he always maintained his innocence, those who knew him told the BBC. Andrius Banevicius, the public information officer for Connecticut's Department of Correction, recounted how Smith used to feed the birds while in Osborn Prison, earning him the nickname The Birdman of Osborn.

Israel builds execution chamber for Palestinians convicted of murder

In March, the Knesset approved legislation that calls for the execution of Palestinians convicted by a military court of killing Israelis Israeli authorities are preparing a prison wing—replete with an execution chamber—designated specifically for Palestinian prisoners convicted of murder, Israel’s i24NEWS channel reported Tuesday. The move comes after the Knesset (Israel’s parliament) approved legislation in March that calls for the execution of Palestinian prisoners convicted by a military court of murdering Israelis.

Japan executes man convicted of killing five in 2009 Osaka pachinko parlor arson

Japan on Friday announced the execution of a man convicted of killing five people after setting fire to an Osaka pachinko parlor in 2009, the first execution by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi 's government as the country faces growing calls for more transparency and the abolition of capital punishment. The Justice Ministry said Sunao Takami, 58, was hanged to death earlier Friday. Takami in 2009 set fire to the crowded pachinko parlor in Osaka by spreading gasoline and throwing a lit match, engulfing the building, killing five and injuring 10 others, Justice Minister Hiroshi Hiraguchi said.

Florida executes William Frances Silvia

Florida executed its 13th death row prisoner of the year Tuesday evening amid the state’s aggressive use of the death penalty championed by Governor Ron DeSantis. William Frances Silvia, 61, who was convicted of fatally shooting his estranged wife and injuring his mother-in-law in 2006, was pronounced dead at 6:11 p.m. after receiving the lethal three-drug injection at Florida State Prison. At 6 p.m. Tuesday, Silvia was already strapped to a gurney with an IV in his arm when the curtain to the death chamber went up. He remained relatively motionless with his eyes and mouth open throughout most of the execution while a priest sat at his feet and prayed.

Oklahoma executes Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez

Oklahoma has carried out 1 of 3 executions set for the same day in the United States in another sign of the resurgence of the death penalty in the country. Carlos Cuesta-Rodriguez was pronounced dead at 10:13 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 13, at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester. He was put to death by lethal injection for the murder of his common-law wife in 2003 at their Oklahoma City home. He admitted to police he shot her twice during an argument. Cuesta-Rodriguez, 70, did not fight for his life, stunning his attorneys in July when he told the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board that he didn't want clemency. "It's time for me to pay for what I did," he said.

Alabama is trying a death penalty bait-and-switch

For a decade, Alabama death row inmate Jeffrey Lee has been clear that he does not want to be executed by lethal injection . But that is what awaits him on September 17 . He faces that prospect because the state has been enjoined from using nitrogen hypoxia , the alternative execution method he preferred, to put him to death. Having failed to show that its nitrogen hypoxia protocol is constitutionally acceptable, Alabama wants a do-over to force Lee to die by lethal injection as a result of its own failure. It should not get one. Alabama should only be able to put Lee to death if it can fix nitrogen hypoxia’s constitutional defects.

Texas | A Dangerous Man. At 18, Billy Joe Wardlow took a man’s life. Nearly 30 years later, the state still wants his.

Like any place humans gather, death row has a culture. Billy Wardlow says it's different in many ways from general population. One is in how new inmates are treated. "In [general population], the guys around you would try to find some way to exploit you," Wardlow said. "Death row, with a few exceptions, will often extend a hand of friendship to the 'new boot' so they can get on their feet ... Most of us get together and let each other know what we can send to the new guy." One of the cherished myths of those who support the death penalty is that it is reserved for the “worst of the worst,” those beyond redemption. Wardlow typically sends writing materials, food, clothes, and hygiene products. Recently, after receiving some of these items, a new inmate asked Wardlow what he owed him. "I told him to remember how guys helped him when he saw someone else new," Wardlow said. "Pay it forward, as the saying goes." Sending gift...

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog