“We Will No Longer Be Silent”: Ghana Supreme Court Nominee’s Intersex Remarks Criticised

When the dignity of an entire community is publicly dismissed by a nominee to Ghana’s highest court, silence is not an option.

Fafali Akortsu, Executive Director of the Anchorage Society of Hope and Resilience, and founder of the Intersex Persons Society of Ghana (IPSOG), responded swiftly when Justice Hafisata Amaleboba, nominated for the Supreme Court, declared during her vetting on 18 June 2025 that:

“There’s no need for special legislation for intersex persons; existing laws already offer protection.”

Those words, broadcast live, drew immediate backlash. IPSOG described them as “inaccurate, dismissive, and deeply harmful,” prompting an official open letter from the community.

“We issued this letter in direct response to a viral video showing a Supreme Court nominee making factually incorrect and deeply harmful remarks about intersex persons during her vetting,” Fafali told MambaOnline.

“When someone poised to interpret our laws dismisses our humanity, it reinforces the systemic ignorance that underpins daily stigma, discrimination, and violence against intersex Ghanaians.”

The subsequently-successful appointee’s statement reduced intersex realities to an afterthought, suggesting that an existing legal framework sufficed. But for Fafali and IPSOG, that framework is anything but adequate.

“We are not myths, errors, or subjects for ridicule,” the IPSOG letter declared. “We are real people with real lives, Ghanaians, who deserve dignity, respect, and equal protection under the law.”

These harmful oversights have real-world, lifelong consequences. Fafali explains:

“Many intersex infants are subjected to irreversible ‘normalising’ and medically unnecessary surgeries in public hospitals without meaningful informed consent,” she says.

“Adolescents have been turned away from schools when administrators, lacking clear policies, cannot record their sex on enrollment forms. Civil registrars omit sex variations on birth certificates and national IDs, rendering us invisible in every public service, from healthcare to voting.”

Survivors describe scars of chronic discomfort, infertility, and psychological trauma:

“Survivors report lifelong complications: chronic discomfort, loss of sexual function, infertility, and profound psychological scars,” Fafali adds. “Without explicit prohibition and psychosocial support, these interventions perpetuate the very stigma they purport to eliminate.”

IPSOG is demanding legislative change, including a ban on non-consensual, medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex infants and children, and recognition of intersex identity in national documentation, as well as public education and awareness programmes.

“I envision Ghana’s census and all health and education surveys adopting an ‘intersex’ option alongside ‘male’ and ‘female,’ with enumerators trained in confidentiality and respectful data collection,” Fafali says.

She also emphasises media responsibility:

“The media must practice responsible reporting, fact-checking, using respectful language, and centering intersex voices rather than sensationalising our bodies,” Fafali urges. “Public figures should openly affirm intersex Ghanaians as equal citizens.”

Fafali concludes with a call to action for allies:

“Allies can amplify our calls, lobby Parliament, partner on public education campaigns, and resource community-based support initiatives,” she says. “By taking these concrete actions, allies help turn international resolutions into tangible protections for intersex people in Ghana and beyond.”