South Africa said it would not adopt an anti-LGBTQ+ charter at a controversial “family values” hate conference in Accra, Ghana this week, raising questions about why the country participated in the event at all.
Ghana’s Parliament, which recently passed an extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bill, hosted the 4th African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty.
Reportedly attended by parliamentarians from 20 African countries, the conference aims to oppose what supporters describe as a foreign agenda undermining cultural norms, traditional family structures, gender roles, and children’s well-being across the continent.
Rolling Back Rights in the Name of Family Values
The event has become a major platform for promoting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, campaigning against comprehensive sexuality education, and supporting restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
One of the conference’s central goals is to encourage the widespread adoption of the Draft African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values by African Union member states.
The charter seeks to exclude same-sex families from the definition of family and roll back human rights protections related to gender, sexuality, reproductive health, and freedom of expression across Africa.
South Africa Declines to Support Charter
Speaking at the conference, MP Zandile Majozi, who reportedly led a South African delegation, told delegates that South Africa would not support the adoption of the charter.
“South Africa would like to reserve our rights in not adopting the charter because it contradicts the Constitution of South Africa, especially in Chapter Two,” she said, referring to the country’s Bill of Rights, which explicitly prohibits discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientation.
Majozi, who chairs the Parliamentary Group on International Relations, further stated that South Africa also could not support the charter because it “does not align with the regional and international laws that we believe in.”
Questions Raised Over South Africa’s Participation
While some have welcomed South Africa’s decision not to endorse the charter, others have asked why South Africa chose to send representatives to the conference at all, given that it is widely recognised as a platform for anti-rights and anti-gender movements.
Concerns Over Foreign Conservative Influence
Human rights groups have also criticised the conference for presenting itself as a defender of African and anti-colonial values while receiving support from and promoting the views of right-wing Christian organisations from Europe and the United States, including Family Watch International.
Henk Jan van Schothorst from the Christian Council International in the Netherlands attended the conference this week. He has close ties to the drafting of the African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values.
Ghanaian organisation Rightify Ghana said that “it is important to be clear about one thing: there is very little that is genuinely African” about the conference.
“This is not a story about protecting African values from foreign influence. Rather, it raises important questions about the growing role of foreign conservative networks in shaping laws and policies across Africa,” the group said.
It added: “Imported hate does not become African simply because it is repackaged in the language of culture, sovereignty, or family values.”
Hate Conference Could Come to South Africa
Reports suggest that organisers are considering hosting the next African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty in Cape Town, South Africa.
One Comment
It would be very stupid to held the next conferance in Cape town
In South Africa is rights of LBTG people protected; so accepting this conferance to be held in Cape town must never be accepted