Young Peoples and Human Rights Ghana

Celebrated Ghanaian songstress Mzbel spent the weekend weeping in police cells and would this morning be processed for court. Mzbel, aged 31, and two other accomplices were arrested by officials of the Motor Transport and Traffic Unit (MTTU) for physically assaulting a uniformed policeman on official duty. The musician and two others were reported to have deliberately run their Mitsubishi 4x4 vehicle with registration number GR 9470-11 into the policeman who fell on the bonnet of the vehicle They then speed off and drove for a distance, with the policeman still hooked dangerously on the bonnet while eyewitnesses screamed at the horror of what was happening. Their vehicle was eventually forced to stop when it was crossed by a private security van. Police sources said when Mzbel got out of the Mitsubishi, she started yelling at the cop, claiming he had no right to cross their way. The musician got more physical and held the uniformed policeman by the neck in an attempt to strangle him wh...

The Ghana AIDS Commission (GAC) said Wednesday that it had initiated a series of focused surveillance activities for HIV and Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), as it had envisaged such risks as a result of the increase in gay activities in the country. The surveillance is directed among the Most at Risk Populations (MARPS). A statement issued in Accra by Dr Angela El-Adas, Director-General of the GAC in reaction to reports of gay activities, said the MSM (Men having Sex with Men) situation in Ghana was an issue that we cannot not run away from. “The work of the reported NGO that registered up to 8,000 MSM, if true, may just be a microcosm of the real situation on the ground. Activities of MSM may predispose some of them and their other heterosexual partners to HIV. It is important therefore to have the requisite data for planning HIV prevention and treatment interventions.” The commission said a study was being implemented by GAC as part of a broader initiative to conduct HIV and ...

The One Show on VIASAT 1 this week began on a very thought provocative note as it dissected the very taboo subject of homosexuality and its impact on the Ghanaian society. In a move that perhaps will find a place in the annals of television history in Ghana, the show’s producers succeeded in bringing audience closer to the ins and outs of the subject and what it portends for the current generation. In a shocking television first, a reformed homosexual Alhassan Baba Mamudu came under a good number of questioning from host PY Addo Boateng who sought to find out what must have contributed to his past experience as a gay. Mamudu who said he comes from an active Christian upbringing, told PY his encounter with the practice began in the Senior High School he attended which happened to be an all Boys Boarding School, whose name he declined to mention. According to him he was involved in this act for quite some time before a divine intervention from came to his rescue. “When you are into such ...

U.S. HIV/Aids Funding Agency May Force Nation to Mainstream Gay, Lesbian Rights  Henry Neondo May 25, 2011 Nairobi Star   New funding policy guidelines issued on Saturday by the US President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) could force countries like Kenya who are strongly opposed to men having sex with men to backtrack.   On Saturday in the US, PEPFAR, a major contributor of funds to fight HIV/Aids in 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa (Kenya is the leading recipient of its funding at $510 million - Sh43.4 billion - every year) released a new Technical Guidance on Combination HIV Prevention for men who have sex with men (MSM) designed to be used by Country Missions. The guidelines call measures to be put in place to address human rights, legal barriers and homophobia in HIV response for MSM.   The PEPFAR MSM guidance comes at a time when MSM in low and middle-income countries are on average 19 times more likely to be infected with HIV than the general p...

The Management of Takoradi Polytechnic has faulted Daily Graphic's reportage on the dismissal of a Lecturer accused of forcing students into lesbianism. According to them, the Paper without any proof concluded that many students have been converted into lesbians. It also challenged the Paper’s claim that, female students were being denied deserving examination marks for disregarding the lesbian lecturer’s sexual advances. The school’s Management is therefore demanding a retraction of these statements and an apology from the Daily Graphic for harming the Polytechnic’s reputation. The following is the Polytechnic’s full statement: The attention of the Management of Takoradi Polytechnic has been drawn to newspaper publications and radio broadcasts concerning the dismissal of Miss. Sheba Quartey, Senior Instructor at the Department of Fashion Design and Technology of the Polytechnic and wishes to react as follows: -The Polytechnic took the decision to dispense with services of Miss. Qu...

May 28, 2011 at 1:37pm A Mathematics teacher at Adissadel College (ADISCO) in Cape Coast has been dismissed by the school authorities for sodomising some of the students. The gay teacher, Richard Atta Panyin, was alleged to have abused six students of the school but only one of them was bold enough to reveal his ordeal to the authorities. The victim (name withheld) is said to have fallen sick, and when he was interrogated by doctors at the hospital where he had been sent, he unravelled the Maths teacher's unholy activities. According to an impeccable source at the school, Panyin, who had previously taught at St Augustine's College, had been sacked for a similar offence in his previous school and later relocated to ADISCO in late 2010. It said the activities of Panyin, who is married with three children, came to light when the sick student identified him to the doctor attending to him, who in turn reported the teacher to the ADISCO authorities. It indicated that Panyin appeared...

May 30, 2011 at 8:26am 2000 homosexuals registered in Western Region The Western Regional HIV and AIDS Focal Person, Dr. Ronald Sowah, has announced that 2000 people have officially been registered as homosexuals in the region. He has, therefore, charged health workers in the region not to discriminate against them when they visit the various health facilities with health complications for treatment. “Dispense health services to them without prejudice to their work because it is their fundamental human right to be taken care of when they are sick, “he said. Dr Sowah was addressing over 200 health workers drawn from the 17 Metropolitan, Municipal and District Assemblies in the Western region at a day’s workshop on “Focus Region Project” in Takoradi. The workshop, which was funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) was aimed at training health workers to be abreast with the basic facts about HIV and AIDS, as well as manage post exposure prophylaxis of blood...