A meeting becomes a crime
A meeting as a crime: twenty-one people stood trial in Ghana for having gathered together.
On 21 May 2021, twenty-one people appeared before the Circuit Court in the Ghanaian town of Ho. Sixteen women and five men, aged between twenty and thirty-five according to media reports, had been arrested the day before at a hotel for nurses and midwives. The charge was "unlawful assembly". The court refused to release them on bail and remanded all of them in custody.
The police spoke of a conference to promote LGBTQ causes and pointed to confiscated brochures with titles such as "Coming Out" and "All About Trans". They also kept the mobile phones of those arrested. A police spokesman declared that there was a clear plan behind the meeting to spread queer life. The organisation Rightify Ghana countered that it had been a training session. The participants had learned how to document and report human rights violations against queer people. Activists also reported that journalists had burst into the event and held those present until the police arrived.
The case came in a year of growing hostility. In February, the community centre of LGBT+ Rights Ghana in Accra had been closed. In the country, same-sex acts carry up to three years in prison. But here it was not a sexual act that was charged, but simply coming together. UN experts criticised that those affected had been peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association.
After twenty-one days in custody, the group, which became known as the "Ho 21", was released on bail on 11 June. In August, a court dropped the case for lack of evidence. The twenty-one could not be charged again on the same accusations.