Clergymen and women at LGBQT Bill sensitisation workshop
PASTORS and church leaders from Bono Region have been taken through the LGBQT+ Bill to enable them appreciate the contents of the bill and how its passage into law shall affect their human rights and that of minority groups.
According to the Center for Democratic Development (CDD), the interaction was necessary to allow the clergy appreciate the current democratic dispensation and the rights of all persons under the 1992 Constitution.
The interaction was facilitated by a senior programme officer of the democratic civil society think tank, Michael Augustus Akagbor.
The two-day engagement treated topics including the Human Rights Debate, Religion, Secularism & Democratic Rights, Human Rights, the Constitution and Ghana’s international obligation to promote, protect and fulfil human rights of all persons, the church, Democracy & LGBQT rights among others.
According to Mr. Akagbor, the 1992 Constitution upholds the rights of all persons living in the country irrespective of their faith or religion.
He explained further that once all Ghanaians have committed to the democratic principles, it is against the rule of law to discriminate against minority rights based on religion or sexual orientations.
Speaking on the topic ‘Human Rights, the Constitution and Ghana’s international obligations to promote, protect and fulfil the human rights of all’, William Nyarko, Executive Director of Africa Centre for International Law and Accountability (ACILA) took the clergymen through various aspects of international treaties and laws that enjoined the country to respect the rights and dignity of all persons.
Pastor Victor Donkor of House of Faith Ministries explained that the standard of their faith is the Holy Bible, stressing that according to the Holy Book, sex is between a man and a woman. Quoting Leviticus 18:22, he read, “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination to the Lord, it is perversion.”
At the end of the two-day engagement, the clergymen concluded that though they cannot agree on allowing people to practice their preferred sexual orientation, they would uphold the human rights in their congregations.
They pleaded with government to critically examine the bill before it is passed into law so it doesn’t infringe on people’s rights unnecessarily.
FROM Daniel Y Dayee, Sunyani