During a training held by Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa (IDNOWA) partner organizations in the city of Ho in the Volta region of Ghana, 21 people, including 16 females and 5 males, were arrested by the Police. They have been charged with the offence of Unlawful Assembly under section 202 of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29).
“This charge is without any substance and I call that the 21 people, who have been unlawfully detained, be released immediately,” demands Davis Mac-Iyalla, Executive Director of IDNOWA.
The purpose of the assembly was to educate the participants about the human rights of LGBTIQ people and ways of reconciliation between LGBTIQ and religious perspectives. The training material that was confiscated by the police proves the purely educational character of the seminar: Books and flyers titled Hate Crime; The LGBTQ+ Muslim; Gender Acronyms; Coming Out; My Child, My Love Always; All About Trans; All About Intersex; Key Watch and One Love Sisters Ghana.
The action of the police was based on the false accusation that there were LGBT people out to recruit others. This idea is erroneous because lesbian, gay and bisexual people are born with their sexual orientation in the same way as heterosexuals are. As they are a minority, their human rights need to be protected against prejudices of the majority population as the incarceration by the police has shown once more.
“All participants are known to IDNOWA. Their training is legal and without any intention to commit a crime. The meeting was justified because of the human rights of the freedom of assembly and the freedom of religion,” declares Mac-Iyalla on behalf of IDNOWA. “We appeal to the government, religious leaders and civil society to use their influence to protect the human rights of the 21 people who are still be held without any due reason.”
On Pentecost Sunday (23rd of May 2021) a delegation of IDNOWA visited the 21 who are incarcerated in four different places. “We found them in a terrible state,”, explains Mac-Iyalla, “Some of them urgently need their daily medication against HIV. The genitalia of an intersex person were examined in a humiliating way. One of the innocent members has had a nervous breakdown because of their treatment. The sanitary situation is unbearable in some of the prisons they have been sent to. During our visit, we prayed together and assured them of our support.”
24th May, 2021
Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa
Interfaith Diversity Network of West Africa 