Democratic Resilience and Gender and LGBTQ+ Rights in Ghana

How can democratic actors and institutions counteract the recent backlash against gender equality and LGBTQ+ rights? To address this question, this paper draws on the analysis of two bills passed by Ghana’s legislature in 2024 focused on gender and sexuality. On February 28, the Ghanaian parliament passed the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, which criminalizes individuals who identify as LGBTQ+ and those who support them. Civil societal groups, academics, and lawyers have publicly opposed the bill and filed legal challenges. The president, Nana Akufo-Addo, has indicated that he will wait to act on the bill until the court weighs in on its constitutionality. On July 30, parliament passed the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Bill, which sets progressive gender equity targets in elected, appointed, and private sector positions and establishes mechanisms to monitor and enforce compliance. Civil societal groups, particularly the Affirmative Action Bill Coalition (AABC), played a critical role in the bill’s success, and Akufo-Addo signed the bill into law on September 19. This paper uses Ghana as a case study to identify the actors and institutions critical to democratic resilience in the face of anti-gender forces. The Ghanaian case demonstrates that civil societal organizations play a critical role in promoting democratic resilience. For both bills, gender activists, academics, and pro-democracy groups engaged in advocacy and lobbying to shape the legislative process. The AABC, for example, was a key force drawing attention to how the low level of women’s representation in political institutions has weakened democracy. When efforts to shape the legislative process failed in the case of the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, activists turned to the court system. While the legal challenges are diverse, one line of argument focuses on how the bill violates citizens’ constitutional right to freedom from discrimination. This framing echoes some of the claims made by Romanian actors challenging the 2020 “gender identity” bill (Chiva 2023). Since the outcome of the court case is pending, it is not yet clear whether this is a successful case of democratic resilience; nonetheless, it offers lessons on strategies that actors can employ to protect democracy.