Social conservatives in Africa are pushing a charter that rejects longstanding international human rights standards and could roll back protections for women, girls, and LGBTQ people.
Participants from 20 African nations met at a conference in Ghana earlier this month to advance the latest version of the African Inter-Parliamentary “Family, Sovereignty and Values” charter. Supporters hope to secure enough backing to bring it before the African Union General Assembly next February for a vote, reports The Guardian.
The draft charter asserts that African values and culture are under attack from “foreign ideologies” and urges governments to withdraw from agreements that do not align with its principles, including the 2003 Maputo Protocol, which promotes gender equality and protects the reproductive rights of women and girls.
The charter would establish a continent-wide legal framework based on a moralistic, rather than rights-based, worldview. It claims that sexual and reproductive health and rights pose an existential threat to the African family and that policies based on those rights promote “abortion on demand.”
The draft charter also rejects comprehensive sex education, which it claims sexualizes children; asserts that gender is strictly male or female; and declares that parental rights override a child’s rights, including on matters of sexuality and discipline.
A report by the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ILSA), a pan-African feminist initiative, argues that the charter distorts concerns about sovereignty and colonialism to justify restricting abortion and LGBTQ rights. It also identifies the influence of Western conservative Christian organizations in the charter’s language.
Writing in the Ghana-based Labari Journal, Professor Jeffrey Haynes of London Metropolitan University argues that the charter’s language reflects the influence of Western organizations, including Arizona-based Family Watch International (FWI) and the Netherlands-based Christian Council International (CCI).
FWI has supported past conferences and has been cited as an influence on Uganda’s infamous “Kill the Gays” law, a precursor to the country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The group has also argued that the United Nations and Western donor nations are imposing a “radical sexual rights agenda” on Africans — a claim that mirrors the charter’s portrayal of LGBTQ identity as a Western import.
However, FWI says it neither participated in nor sponsored the recent conference in Ghana.
“The draft charter is Africa-inspired, African-initiated, and African-directed and controlled,” FWI told The Guardian in a statement. The group said it supports the charter’s restrictions on comprehensive sex education and its call for governments to use a family-centered approach when developing laws and policies.
Gilbert Mitullah, a Kenyan lawyer and board member of the Queer African Network, said the charter uses the language of “family values” and sovereignty to justify “expanded state intrusion into private life.”
Mitullah noted that the charter cites the Geneva Consensus Declaration, an anti-abortion manifesto crafted by former Trump adviser Valerie Huber. He described the charter as a “collaborative product of a transnational network, with African signatories used to give it the appearance of Indigenous provenance.”
Mitullah added: “The charter is not a continental instrument that happens to share vocabulary with Western anti-rights groups. It is a transplant.”
Colorado has approved a bill allowing survivors of conversion therapy to sue licensed providers regardless of when the therapy occurred.
The measure, sponsored by State Reps. Alex Valdez (D-Denver), an out gay man, and Karen McCormick (D-Hygiene), along with Sens. Lisa Cutter (D-Littleton) and Kyle Mullica (D-Northglenn), allows people subjected to sexual orientation or gender identity change efforts to sue licensed mental health professionals for damages. Entities that hired or supervised providers engaging in conversion therapy could also be sued.
A new report from SafeHome.org, a home and personal security assessment firm, ranked all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on how safe they are for the LGBTQ community.
Thirteen states earned "A" grades for LGBTQ safety based on their comprehensive pro-equality laws and low rates of hate crimes against LGBTQ people. At the other end of the spectrum, six states received "F" grades due to discriminatory laws and high rates of hate crimes targeting LGBTQ people.
The rankings were based on a composite score combining a law score and a hate crime score, which were translated into a final letter grade.
Lawmakers in Ghana have passed a bill that would punish people found to have promoted "LGBTQ activities" or advocated for LGBTQ rights with prison sentences of up to 10 years.
The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by President John Dramani Mahama, bans "promoting, sponsoring, or advocating" LGBTQ acts, as well as funding LGBTQ groups and activities, according to The Associated Press.
The legislation also imposes a three-year prison sentence for people who engage in same-sex activity and a five-year prison sentence for anyone who operates a brothel for prohibited sexual activity.
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