Human rights lawyer and MP for Madina, Francis-Xavier Sosu, has advocated community sentencing for persons found culpable of LGBTQ+ activities upon the coming into force of the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2024.
He said that is more deterrent.
The prescription of custodial sentence of up to three years in the Bill passed by Parliament on February 28, has attracted varied reactions.
Speaking in an interview with Berla Mundi on TV3’s New Day on March 13, Mr Sosu said, “There are several ways you can punish people like the community sentence, particularly in our country where community sentencing is a little bit like a community shame.”
He maintained that when people are subjected to community shame in Ghana, it is “a bigger deterrence,” stressing that if culprits are subjected to cleaning public toilets, for example, it would deter others from committing such offenses.
Sosu further underscored that “any form of a misdemeanor, if the laws capture it as a misdemeanor, once it is a misdemeanor, a community sentence would not be a bad idea.”
“In those penalties, it is not only a community sentence, so you have a community sentence, you have a fine and then you have a custodial sentence,” he explained, adding that judges must be allowed to look at a community sentence in all circumstances.
The human rights lawyer had earlier filed a motion to replace the prison sentence under the anti-LGBTQ+ bill with community service.
Responding to concerns that certain aspects of the law should be reviewed for instance, the custodial sentences, the human rights lawyer said, “Well, in all honesty, I don’t believe somebody must go to prison because of their sexual orientation, I don’t believe that.”
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Parliament unanimously passed the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill 2024, commonly known as an anti-LGBTQ+ bill, on Wednesday, February 28.
The bill, if assented to by President Akufo-Addo, prescribes between five and 10 years of custodial sentences for a person found guilty of willfully promoting, sponsoring or advocating for LGBTQ+ activities in Ghana, which are prohibited under the act.
Meanwhile, individuals caught engaging in homosexuality face between two months and three years of imprisonment, under Article 4(2) of the act.