Young Peoples and Human Rights Ghana

PRESS STATEMENT: ACCOUNTING TO THE PEOPLE: A REAL COMMITMENT OR ANOTHER POLITICAL RHETORIC His Excellency, President John Dramani Mahama began a tour to the various regions to account to the people of Ghana on how his government has performed in terms of fulfilling previous campaign promises.  The Right to Information (RTI) Coalition would like to know from His Excellency, whether the promise by his government to pass the Right to Information Bill this year formed part of the agenda in the just concluded accountability tour. Efforts by civil society organisations in Ghana to secure the passage of the Right to Information Bill have proved abortive for more than a decade. The RTI Bill is the only Bill in Parliament that has suffered from several failed promises by politicians from both sides of the political divide. Governments both past and present have made promises to put the legislation in place but have failed to do so despite their proclaimed commitment to the fight ag...

Gay Men, transgender people and Sex Workers Expresses Outrage Over Unacceptably Weak Political Declaration Adopted Today at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS Published: June 8, 2016 A High-Level Failure for the United Nations on Key Populations New York, NY –  The Global Network of Sex Work Projects ( NSWP) , The Global Network of Trans Women (IRGT)   and  MSMGF   (The Global Forum on MSM & HIV) together with the Global Platform to Fast-Track the HIV and Human Rights Responses Among Gay and Bisexual Men and Other Men Who Have Sex with Men ( The Platform )  deeply regrets to report that the  political declaration  adopted today at the United Nations High-Level Meeting on Ending AIDS (HLM) inexcusably fails to meaningfully address the HIV epidemic among key populations, including gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men, sex workers, people who use drugs, and transgender people. The final declaration’s...

CEPEHRG, Accra For immediate Release May 16, 2016 The Mental Health and Well Being of the Ghanaian LGBTI Community O n May 17th 1990, t he World Health Organization (WHO) published a revised version of the “International Classification of Diseases Manual ‘ , in which homosexuality was not considered a mental disease any longer. Therefore sexual and gender diversity is celebrated worldwide and annually on May 17th since 2004 as the International Day against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia ‘ (IDAHOT) . I n a statement, t he World Psychiatric Association ‘ (WPA) strongly condemned any attempt to conflate the diversity of sexual orientations and gender identities within t he Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex (LGBTI) community with a mental disorder. Despite all these and other declarations and statements, Dr. Akwasi Osei ( Chief Psychiatrist of Ghana and the Chief Executive of the Ghana Mental Health Authority ) has described homosexuals as persons...

Nigerian Gay Man Lashed 20 Times For Sodomy: Report BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — A young man convicted of sodomy was whipped 20 times Thursday in a northern Nigerian Shariah court. Though Mubarak Ibrahim was found guilty under Shariah law, it is the first conviction of a gay man in Nigeria since President Goodluck Jonathan signed a bill that further criminalizes homosexuality under the West African nation's Western-style penal code. Activists believe the new law has whipped up homophobia and endangers gay people in a country where lynchings and mob justice are common. But the Muslim Rights Concern group on Thursday said it was "the other way round as the practice of homosexualism and lesbianism is most capable of instigating widespread hatred and turning society upside down." It praised Jonathan for resisting pressures from Western powers that have condemned ...

New anti-homosexuality legislation in Nigeria is a serious blow to the country's response to HIV http://www.aidsalliance.org/NewsDetails.aspx?Id=291672   14 January 2013   On 13 January 2014, it was reported that President of Nigeria,  Goodluck Jonathan, had signed the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Bill into law. The International HIV/AIDS Alliance is deeply concerned by the severely negative impact the new legislation will have on the HIV response in Nigeria. The Act will seriously impact the ability of men who have sex with men and transgender people to access life saving and essential HIV treatment and prevention services and also poses a serious threat to all organisations providing such services. The HIV epidemic is one of the most formidable challenges Nigeria is facing today.  Over 3.4 million Nigerians live with HIV, making Nigeria the country with the second largest population of people living with HIV in the World. Men who have sex...

January 3, 2014 A 19-year-old second year student of the Emit Electronic Institute in Accra has hanged himself in his room at the Old Habitat residential area within the Assin Fosu Municipality. Gideon Bansah left no suicide note but the motive behind his action was believed to be a rift he had with his father on that day. Briefing  The Mirror ,  the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Kwabena Owusu-Bempah, the Assin Fosu District Commander of the Ghana Police Service, said Bansah was found hanging on a nylon sponge in his room. ASP Owusu-Bempah said Bansah travelled from school to Assin Fosu on Thursday, December 12 and later left for town in the evening but never returned to the house until the following morning. He said when Bansah returned home, his father was said to have rebuked him and advised him not to engage in those nocturnal escapades again. According to the district commander, Bansah, apparently not satisfied with the father’s rebuke, e...

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), an international non-governmental organisation, has called for a concerted effort by stakeholders in the fight against child labour and its related issues in the country. Speaking at a durbar at Bortianor, a suburb of Accra, to mark this year’s Human Right Day, the Regional Co-ordinator of the CHRI, Mrs Mina Mensah, said until stakeholders teamed up and worked together as one unified institution, it would be difficult for Ghana to deal with matters relating to child labour which continued to hinder the country’s development. This year’s Human Right Day is on the theme; “Child labour deprives children of their right to development.” Child labour at Bortianor She said the reason why Bortianor was selected for this year’s Human Right Day commemoration by the CHRI was that most of the children in the area were subjected to child labour. Mrs Mensah mentioned fishing and stone quarrying as major activities which chi...