From pressuring the hotel hosting the event to highlighting foreign influence, activists are starting to mobilise against a major upcoming anti-LGBTQ+ African “family values” conference in Ghana.
It has now been confirmed that the 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family, Sovereignty and Values will take place at the Four Points by Sheraton Accra Airport in Accra from 3 to 6 June.
The conference will bring together parliamentarians to promote what organisers describe as “African values” and oppose what they claim is a foreign agenda undermining cultural norms, traditional family structures, gender roles, and children’s wellbeing on the continent.
Registration for the conference, which will ironically take place during International Pride Month, has officially opened. Previous editions of the event were held in Uganda in 2023, 2024, and 2025.
Conference to Promote Anti-LGBTQ+ Agenda
The event serves as a major platform to promote anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, campaign against comprehensive sexuality education, and support restrictions on sexual and reproductive health and rights.
Activists view the decision to host the 2026 event in Ghana — a country on the verge of passing an extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bill — as part of a broader strategic effort to strengthen anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment and expand repressive laws across Africa.
The conference is also expected to continue efforts to promote the adoption of the Draft African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values by African Union member states. The document portrays sexual and gender diversity and LGBTQ+ human rights as threats to African culture and traditions and the safety of families and children.
Pressure Mounts on Conference Venue
Calls are growing for the Four Points by Sheraton, a Marriott International franchisee, to withdraw from hosting the event, with activists highlighting the hotel’s involvement on social media.
“We urge Marriott to act swiftly & responsibly,” said the organisation JustRight Ghana on X. “A company with a global commitment to diversity, inclusion, and human rights cannot remain silent while its facilities are used to host a conference associated with anti-women agendas and anti-LGBTQ+ issue.”
Some campaigners have also encouraged people to boycott the venue and leave negative reviews on platforms such as Google.
“If you’re a member of the LGBTIQ community or an ally, boycott it and leave a review,” wrote a one-star reviewer on Google. “Queer West Africans deserve safety, queer West Africans deserve to live without being criminalised. Boycott!”
Another reviewer stated: “Do not patronise this hotel if you believe in the dignity of all peoples and their right to safety and life regardless of who they choose to love as adults.”
Petition Highlight Foreign Far-Right Influence
Activists are also working to expose what they describe as significant foreign influence behind the conference, arguing that it does not protect African values but instead advances Western far-right Christian ideology.
An All Out petition describes the event as “foreign-financed and foreign-directed” and part of a decades-long campaign by American and European groups to promote anti-rights ideologies in Africa.
The petition alleges that Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International — a US-based organisation designated as a hate group — and Henk Jan van Schothorst of Christian Council International in the Netherlands are key figures supporting and financing the conference and its agenda.
It further claims that Van Schothorst’s organisation “publicly claims credit” for drafting the African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values.
“That draft charter is what this is really about, a document designed to enshrine discrimination and roll back women’s rights across the continent,” the petition states.
The petition calls on Slater, Van Schothorst, and their organisations to “withdraw from the conference and from their financial campaign to import anti-rights legislation and an anti-rights charter across the African continent.”
A Critical Moment for LGBTQ+ Rights in Africa
Ghanaian organisation Rightify Ghana warned that with registration and hotel bookings now officially underway, “the Accra conference has moved decisively from planning to implementation.”
The group cautioned that “the convergence of parliamentary actors, legal institutions, advocacy organisations, and African Union engagement strategies indicates that the conference is intended not merely as a symbolic gathering, but as a strategic consolidation point for a broader movement seeking to reshape governance, family policy, gender rights, and human rights frameworks across Africa.”
