The Member of Parliament for Old Tafo, Vincent Ekow Assafuah, has called on Ghana’s religious leadership to carefully review recent amendments made to the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill 2025, arguing that the revised provisions weaken the original intent of the legislation.
In a strongly worded statement shared on Facebook, the lawmaker urged key faith based bodies including the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference, the Christian Council of Ghana, the Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council, the National Association of Charismatic and Christian Churches, the Office of the National Chief Imam, and traditional religious authorities to thoroughly examine the changes before the Bill is presented for presidential assent.
He stressed that this is a critical moment that requires active engagement from religious leaders, insisting that silence at this stage would be inappropriate given the national significance of the legislation and its moral implications.
Mr Assafuah accused the Majority in Parliament of introducing amendments to Clause 9 of the Bill that, in his view, create exemptions that were not present in the original version passed by the House.
According to him, the original Bill contained strict provisions criminalising the promotion, support, advocacy, dissemination, and facilitation of activities prohibited under the law, with penalties ranging between five and ten years’ imprisonment for offenders.
He further explained that the initial Clause 9 also prohibited the production, publication, distribution, and circulation of materials intended to encourage or promote such acts, while also banning attempts to influence public opinion in support of them.
In addition, he noted that the original text criminalised the provision of assistance, funding, or resources aimed at enabling the activities the legislation seeks to prohibit.
However, the Old Tafo legislator argues that the revised version introduces exemptions under Clause 9(2), which he claims significantly alters the enforcement framework and dilutes the strength of the law.
He stated that the Ghanaian public should not be misled into believing that the Bill has been strengthened when, in his view, key enforcement provisions have been modified to include exceptions.
Mr Assafuah further questioned the rationale behind the amendments, asking why such exemptions were absent in the original draft and demanding clarification on how the changes enhance the effectiveness of the legislation.
He argued that Clause 9 is central to the entire legislative framework and warned that introducing what he described as loopholes into that provision risks undermining the Bill’s core objectives.
The MP maintained that the effectiveness of the legislation depends on strict control of advocacy, promotion, organisation, and financing of prohibited activities, which he says the original Bill sought to comprehensively restrict.
He concluded that the issue transcends partisan politics and instead concerns the integrity of Parliament and its commitment to ensuring that the legislative intent of the Bill is fully preserved.
