Mrs. Stephanie Sullivan:USA ambassador to Ghana and H.E Robert P. Jackson. Former USA Ambassador to Ghana (Advocates For The Vulnerable)

We urge President Nana Akufo Addo to act as a Human rights lawyer by adhering to the standards laid down in the universal human rights documents. The Republic of Ghana is a member of the United Nations and has ratified UN Human Rights Conventions and thus has made binding international commitments..

Our Mission

To protect the rights of the vulnerable and LGBT in Ghana. Publicly advocate against the proposed obnoxious 10year jail bill.

LGBT DESERVES RESPECT

Sensitize the public about rights of LGBT .And how someone’s bed room shouldnt be your problem. Educate Ghanaians about the lie- myth surrounding LGBT To use the newly created social media platform to champion the above goals.

LGTB HAS RIGHTS

Let Ghanaians understand that, LGBT has no occurrence link with Soldom and Gomorra type of destruction as preached by my Muslim and Christian leaders...

FEATURED PICTURE HUB

Featured Picture availabe here.

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We Protect's

Everyone has rights and needs to be protected, it a duty to keep everyone safe and it our duty to fight and protect the interest and rights of the following.

  • WOMEN – RIGHTS Women's rights are human rights! These include the right to live free from violence and discrimination; to enjoy the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health; to be educated; to own property; to vote; and to earn an equal wage.
  • CHILDREN – RIGHTS In order to grow up properly, some basic needs are to be fulfilled as their right. Rights of Children include the Right to food, Right to clothing, Right to Shelter, Right to education, Right to entertainment, Right to good health and proper nourishment and the right to name and country.
  • LGBT – RIGHTS civil rights movement that advocates equal rights for gay men, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender persons; seeks to eliminate sodomy laws barring homosexual acts between consenting adults; and calls for an end to discrimination against gay men, lesbians, and transgender persons in employment, credit, housing, public accommodations, and other areas of life.
  • Rights For Alleged– Witches End Human Rights Abuses Against Alleged Witches
  • THE – DISADVANTAGED Social protection systems using a rights-based framework should mainstream inclusion in their design, implementation and evaluation to ensure that they are accessible by all those who suffer from structural discrimination (such as women, children, older persons, persons with disabilities, ethnic minorities, indigenous peoples and people living with HIV/AIDS)
What does “LGBT” mean? ?
LGBT stands for “lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.” While these terms have increasing global resonance, in different cultures other terms may be used to describe people who form same-sex relationships and those who exhibit non-binary gender identities (such as hijra, meti, lala, skesana, motsoalle, mithli, kuchu, kawein, travesty, muxé, fa’afafine, fakaleiti, hamjensgara and Two-Spirit). In a human rights context, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people face both common and distinct challenges. Intersex people (those born with atypical sex characteristics) suffer many of the same kinds of human rights violations as LGBT people, as indicated below.
Is there any reason to criminalize homosexuality?
No. Criminalizing private sexual relationships between consenting adults, whether the relationships are samesex or different-sex, is a violation of the right to privacy. Laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relationships are also discriminatory, and where enforced, violate rights to freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention. At least 76 countries have laws in effect that criminalize private, consensual same-sex relationships, and in at least five countries conviction may carry the death penalty. In addition to violating basic rights, this criminalization serves to legitimize hostile attitudes towards LGBT people, feeding violence and discrimination. It also hampers efforts to halt the spread of HIV by deterring LGBT people from coming forward for testing and treatment for fear of revealing criminal activity.
Does international human rights law apply to LGBT people?
Yes, it applies to every person. International human rights law establishes legal obligations on States to make sure that everyone, without distinction, can enjoy their human rights. A person’s sexual orientation and gender identity is a status, like race, sex, colour or religion. United Nations human rights experts have confirmed that international law prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
What is the Women's Rights 'Division (WRD)?
We are a group of women's rights activists who use international human rights law and norms to promote respect for women's rights throughout the world. Through in-country fact-finding and collaboration with local nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), we seek to hold governments (and armed opposition groups) accountable for human rights abuses committed against women. We use press attention and advocacy at the local, national, and international levels to stigmatize governments and compel them to abide by international human rights standards. We are one of three thematic divisions of Human Rights Watch (the others are Children's Rights and Arms).
What do you try to achieve?
As women's rights activists, our work is to improve the responsiveness of the international human rights system to violations that happen exclusively to women or happen to women because they are women. Much of what we do, such as documenting sexual violence in armed conflict, is to highlight the ways in which different types of violence and discrimination against women are in fact human rights abuses and prohibited under international human rights law and international humanitarian law (the laws of war).
What issues do you work on?
We work on issues relating to a vast array of women's concerns, including women workers, domestic violence, sexual violence, women and HIV/AIDS, women and armed conflict, international justice, trafficking, refugees and internally displaced persons, gender-based asylum claims, women's status in the family, women's legal status, women in state custody, sexual autonomy, and reproductive rights.
What are children’s rights?
Children’s rights are defined by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Convention provides for three categories of rights: Rights of provision, for example to education and health care. Rights of protection, for example, from abuse and neglect. Rights of participation, for example the right to be heard in matters affecting the child.
What is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child?
On November 20, 1989, the United Nations General Assembly unanimously adopted the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the most comprehensive treaty for the protection and support of children in existence today. It reaffirms the fact that children, because of their vulnerability, need special care and protection, defined in terms of rights. The Convention represents a historic milestone. It not only symbolizes the many years of struggle to improve children’s status in society but also attempts to consolidate international law on the basic rights of children. The Convention has been ratified by more countries than any other human rights treaty in history. Canada is one of over 170 nations that have signed the Convention, illustrating our government’s commitment to recognize the fundamental human dignity of our children and to ensure their well-being and healthy development. By signing this document, countries are obliged to review their domestic laws and practices regarding children and to make any changes needed to reach the minimum standards set by the Convention.
What are the guiding principles of the Convention?
There are four guiding principles; the aim is to provide the best conditions for the development of all children: The best interests principle. The Convention requires that the primary consideration in decision-making about children shall be the child’s best interests. Non-discrimination. All children must be provided with equal opportunity for healthy development. Importance of family. The Convention supports the importance of the family to the child, parental authority and parental guidance. Participation. Children must be given a voice in all matters that affect them in accordance with their age and maturity.
Why do you use the phrase LGBTIQA+ communities (instead of community)?
We use this term because there is no one monolithic "LGBTIQA+ community”. Everyone has multiple, intersecting identities (e.g., racial/ethnic identity, gender identity, ability status, educational background, income level, faith or religious affiliation, national origin). There are commonalities of experience among people who are marginalized based on actual or presumed sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression but to ignore the diversity of lived experience due to these intersecting identities feels disrespectful and is inaccurate.
What’s the difference between sex and gender?
Typically, people use “sex” to refer to a person's assigned sex at birth based upon physical anatomy and chromosomes. “Gender” is typically used to refer to roles, appearance, interests, and one’s psychological sense of themselves as a gendered being. Historically, a distinction has been made between sex and gender centered on the ways in which gender is socially constructed around a designation that has been presumed to be ‘objective’ and not socially constructed. When you look closer at the realities that assigned sex at birth (i.e., sex) is socially constructed based on what is considered to be ‘normative’ anatomical and chromosomal characteristics (consider the frequency of intersex conditions; estimated at 1 in 2000), some are now calling into question this rigid distinction between ‘sex’ and ‘gender’. “Gender identity” is the gender an individual identifies as psychologically, regardless of the sex/gender they were assigned at birth. “Gender expression” is how someone expresses their gender through appearance, behavior, or mannerisms. A person’s gender expression may or may not be analogous to their gender identity, and a person’s biological sex may or may not be analogous to their gender identity or gender expression.
What is “gender identity”?
Gender identity reflects a deeply felt and experienced sense of one’s own gender. A person’s gender identity is typically consistent with the sex assigned to them at birth. For transgender people, there is an inconsistency between their sense of their own gender and the sex they were assigned at birth. In some cases, their appearance and mannerisms and other outwards characteristics may conflict with society’s expectations of gender-normative behaviour.
What does transgender mean?
Transgender (sometimes shortened to “trans”) is an umbrella term used to describe a wide range of identities —including transsexual people, cross-dressers (sometimes referred to as “transvestites”), people who identify as third gender, and others whose appearance and characteristics are perceived as gender atypical. Transwomen identify as women
What kind of human rights violations are LGBT people exposed to?
LGBT people of all ages and in all regions of the world suffer from violations of their human rights. They are physically attacked, kidnapped, raped and murdered. In more than a third of the world’s countries, people may be arrested and jailed (and in at least five countries executed) for engaging in private, consensual, same-sex relationships. States often fail to adequately protect LGBT people from discriminatory treatment in the private sphere, including in the workplace, housing and healthcare. LGBT children and adolescents face bullying in school and may be thrown out of their homes by their parents, forced into psychiatric institutions or forced to marry. Transgender people are often denied identity papers that reflect their preferred gender, without which they cannot work, travel, open a bank account or access services. Intersex children may be subjected to surgical and other interventions
What are homophobia and transphobia?
Homophobia is an irrational fear of, hatred or aversion towards lesbian, gay or bisexual people; transphobia denotes an irrational fear, hatred or aversion towards transgender people. Because the term homophobia is widely understood, it is often used in an all-encompassing way to refer to fear, hatred and aversion towards LGBT people in general.

Progress History

Progressively we have been able to educate the public as well as protect individual rights

Individual Rights Protection
90%
Public Education
75%
Press Release & Press Conference
85%
Special Projects
55%

WHAT PEOPLE Says

“Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”.

James Baldwin

“It is absolutely imperative that every human being’s freedom and human rights are respected, all over the world.”

Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir

“Equality means more than passing laws. The struggle is really won in the hearts and minds of the community, where it really counts.”

Barbara Gittings

Activities

Campginers

Projects Done

Rights Activist

LATEST NEWS

THE ALLIANCE FOR PROTECTION OF THE VULNERABLE AND LGBT NEWS SECTION.

National Anti-LGBTQ+ bill

National Anti-LGBTQ+ bill

 


 


National

Anti-LGBTQ+ bill is nonsense; it shouldn’t have been passed – Sam Okudzeto

A member of the Council of State, Sam Okudzeto, has expressed his disapproval of the passage of the anti-LGBTQ+ bill, questioning its necessity and appropriateness. 


In his view, such a legislation should not have been brought forward in the first place, as he sees no valid reason for the state to intervene in the private affairs of consenting adults.


Voicing his concerns in an interview with TV3 on Wednesday, May 8, Mr. Okudzeto questioned the perceived link between individuals' intimate relationships and the broader economy. 

He argued that the actions of two adults in the privacy of their bedroom should not be subject to governmental scrutiny or regulation, emphasising the importance of personal freedoms and privacy rights.

Turning his attention to the clergy, Mr. Okudzeto challenged their singular focus on homosexuality as a sin deserving of legislative action. 

He queried whether the clergy are equally vocal and proactive in addressing other sins recorded in the Bible. 

Mr. Okudzeto insisted on the existence of more pressing and pertinent issues facing the nation that warrant attention and resources and thus called for a re-evaluation of national priorities, suggesting that the focus on anti-LGBTQ+ legislation detracts from addressing critical socio-economic challenges that affect all Ghanaians.

“We have even tried to induce the churches, they are all running around calling on the president to sign the bill. All the sins which are listed in the Bible, what have they been doing about it? LGBTQI is the only one they have seen? We talk about corruption, corruption, from the messenger to the top, every one of us is involved in corruption.” 

“When a man and woman go and sleep in the bedroom, is that my business? How does that affect the economy? How does that put food out of my mouth? Does that affect my education? So I have a different view altogether. I think the whole concept, is completely out of the issue…We are preoccupied with someone sitting with a man or a woman sitting with a woman as being a national issue. The whole thing about LGBTQI is a nonsense issue, it should not have come in the first place," he said.

Parliament has unanimously passed the bill criminalising the practice and promotion of LGBTQ+.

Its transmission to President Akufo-Addo for his assent is stalled currently after two citizens challenged the constitutionality of the bill.

Reject anti-LGBTQ+ Bill – Prof Gadzekpo tells Akufo-Addo

Reject anti-LGBTQ+ Bill – Prof Gadzekpo tells Akufo-Addo

 The Board Chair of the Ghana Center for Democratic Development (CDD-Ghana), Professor Audrey Gadzekpo, has called on President Akufo-Addo to reject the Proper Human Sexual Rights and Family Values bill.

Prof. Gadzekpo argued that the bill undermines fundamental human rights protected by the Constitution, including the rights to dignity, freedom of speech and association, procession participation, academic freedom, equality, and non-discrimination.


Speaking at a press conference focused on human rights and a rights-based approach to supporting sexual minorities in Ghana, Prof. Gadzekpo emphasized that upholding rights and freedoms is crucial to constitutional democracy.

She warned that altering these rights could jeopardize Ghana’s democratic principles, highlighting the significance of the issue for all citizens

“Once our pillars of democracy rest to prevent the tyranny of the majority, depending on where we find ourselves, and on any given issue, we can all experience the feeling of being minorities. The rights guarantee in the constitution is therefore our only protector from majoritarian tyranny.

“Human rights are not dependent on majority approval or disapproval, therefore the assertion by the proponents of the Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill that because the majority of Ghanaians are allegedly in favour of the bill, justifies its passage into laws is untenable. Ghana is a secular and multi-religious country.”

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Let’s join forces to combat domestic violence — Italian Ambassador

Let’s join forces to combat domestic violence — Italian Ambassador

 

The Italian Ambassador to Ghana, Daniela d'Orlandi, has called on Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), advocates, the public and all relevant stakeholders in the fight against domestic violence to join forces and intensify their campaign against the menace. 

 Daniela d'Orlandi (middle), the Italian Ambassador to Ghana, and Yahaya Alhassan (left), Founder of the Humanity Magazine, with other advocates after the meeting

Daniela d'Orlandi (middle), the Italian Ambassador to Ghana, and Yahaya Alhassan (left), Founder of the Humanity Magazine, with other advocates after the meeting

That, she said, was because gender-based violence, particularly against women, was not unique to the country but rather an international phenomenon that could effectively be dealt with through a unified approach.

“You and other people may be doing the same thing in the same area but you may not even know.

So by joining forces and creating a strong synergy and relationship, we can do more,” she stressed.

Ms d'Orlandi made the call last Thursday when the Founder of the Humanity Magazine, a humanitarian organisation, Yahaya Alhasan, together with some advocates, paid a courtesy call on her at the embassy in Accra.

The visit was to solicit the Italian government’s support in the organisation’s quest to ensure domestic violence was clamped down while victims were given access to free medical care. 

Commendation, support

Ms d'Orlandi, who is also the ambassador to Togo, commended the organisation for continuously pursuing the agenda to protect women from all forms of gender-based harassment and pledged to use her platform to create a strong network of advocates for the cause.

She mentioned that a civil society made of women entrepreneurs, professors and spouses of Italians working or based in the country, known as the Ghana-Italian Women Association, was equally committed and focused on improving the social welfare of women and children.

“For instance, in Agbogbloshie, they are supporting schools and dispensaries, bringing in medicines and providing training for the young girls.

They also have a programme to educate adolescent girls and Kayayei against unwanted pregnancies,” she explained.

Due to the prevalent cases of abuse across the country, Mr Alhassan reiterated an earlier appeal to the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, and the entire government to help scrap the cost of medical treatment for victims of gender-based violence and abuses.

“It is mainly the poor and the voiceless who are beaten in society.

The medical cost is quite expensive, especially at such a distressful time for our economy.

So how many of them can afford proper medical care?” he lamented.

Mr Alhasan stated that the organisation had made some modest gains in combating the problem by championing a campaign that led to the passage of an anti-witchcraft law, criminalising the accusation of anyone as a witch. 

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