Private legal practitioner, Austin Kwabena Brako-Powers has called on Ghana’s Parliament and government to stop re-introducing the controversial anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and instead forward the version passed in February 2024 to President John Dramani Mahama for assent.
Speaking to Eric Mawuena on 3FM’s Sunrise show on October 23, 2025, Mr Brako-Powers argued that since the bill — officially titled the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill — was already passed by Parliament on February 28 2024, there is no legitimate reason to restart the legislative process.
“If the Bill had been properly and legitimately passed by the previous Parliament, I see no basis and no reason why the Bill must be reengineered or reworked on so that the President will assent to the same,” he said.
The February 2024 bill, which imposes stricter criminal sanctions on LGBTQ+ persons and those who support or promote LGBTQ+ activities, still awaits presidential assent to become law.
The Minority Members of Parliament had wanted the Bill to be re-listed to go through the lawmaking process again since the dissolution of the last Parliament. But Brako-Powers says this step is unnecessary and risks further delay.
He noted that the process of re-introducing the bill as a new piece of legislation could undermine public confidence in Ghana’s legislative system and raise questions about consistency and transparency.
“Parliament slept, and the same Parliament wants us to allow them to reengineer the Bill. No. That will amount to a waste of government resources. Why do we start the whole process again?” Mr Brako-Powers emphasised.
Mr Brako-Powers is blaming Parliament for the situation since it was not alive to its constitutional duties.
“The reason why we are here is because Parliament slept. The minute the Supreme Court disposed of those cases or even the minute the President did not assent to the same within fourteen days, Parliament was supposed to be at work because the position of the law is clear. That if the President is unable to assent to the same and must communicate the same to Parliament within fourteen days, Parliament must go to work,” he said.
He asked the MPs to send the passed Bill to President John Mahama for his assent since the previous Parliament had done the work.
“They should stop embarrassing and disgracing us. That is not the position of the law,” Mr Brako-Powers said.
The Bill was reintroduced in Parliament after the House resumed from recess and was advertised on Tuesday, October 21, 2025 to be considered for business on Wednesday, October 22. It was expected to have met its first reading.
However, despite it being advertised the Bill was not found on the Order Paper for Wednesday, October 22, 2025 when the House was ready to take the first reading.
Explaining the development on the floor of Parliament on Wednesday, October 22, 2025, Majority Leader Mahama Ayariga said there was no need to re-lay the bill since it had already been passed by the previous Parliament and sent to the Presidency for assent.
“We indicated that we thought the bills had been passed by this house already and had been sent to the presidency for assent. And so, we didn’t see the need to reconsider a bill that has already been passed by this house, waiting for presidential assent,” he told the House.
Ayariga noted that unless the constitutional procedure for returning a bill to Parliament is instituted by the President, the House has no business debating it again.
“Unless the constitutional procedure for returning the bill to us is complied with by the President for us to reconsider and then use our two-thirds majority to approve the bill, even if the presidency had some issues with it, there’s no need to relist it,” he explained.
