"Gay Rights: Supreme Court Must Declare Ghana's Stance"

The Chairman of the Constitution Review Commission, Professor Albert Kodzo Fiadjoe has urged the Supreme Court to decide whether the country is ready to respect gay rights or not. According to him, the Supreme Court is the only state institution with the capacity to give a final position on matters of gay rights. The late President John Mills early this year declared that he will not endorse gay marriages or legalize it in Ghana. His comments came after the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon called on African leaders to respect gay rights in their respective countries. UK Prime Minister, David Cameron also threatened to withdraw aid to anti-gay African countries including Ghana. Speaking at a two-day southern sector engagement with the media on the report of the CRC and the government white paper issued on the report on Tuesday, Professor Fiadjoe stated that �we as a Constitution Review Commission, we are not given the mandate to recognize gay rights because the constitutional architecture which is in place is that the recognition or non recognition for gay rights is the responsibility of the Supreme Court.� The government white paper issued on the CRC�s report also supported the position taken by the CRC. The Member of Parliament for Wa West Constituency, Joseph Yieleh Chireh in explaining government�s stance on the issue stated that �government thinks that we will be doing an unconstitutional thing by passing a law to ban gay rights.�