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Human rights defenders urged venues to shun the anti-gay conference
The anti-gay Fourth African Inter-Parliamentary “Family, Sovereignty and Values” Conference, previously planned for the Four Points by Sheraton hotel, then at the Accra Ridge Church, will now be held at Parliament House. (Image courtesy of the Parliament of Ghana on Facebook)
The LGBTQ rights advocacy group Rightify Ghana reports:
The venue for the controversial 4th African Inter-Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty — widely criticised by human rights advocates as an anti-rights, anti-LGBTQ, anti-women’s rights, and anti-SRHR gathering — has been changed for the second time amid growing logistical confusion and mounting pressure from local human rights defenders opposing the event. [“SRHS” is an abbreviation for Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights.]
According to a new conference flyer shared on the Facebook page of the Parliament of Ghana, the conference will now be hosted at Parliament House in Accra after earlier venue announcements identified the Four Points by Sheraton Accra Airport [a Marriott franchisee] and later the Accra Ridge Church as official venues for the June 3–6, 2026 gathering.
The repeated venue changes come as registration, hotel bookings, and travel coordination for delegates across Africa and beyond are already underway through the conference’s official website hosted on a subdomain of Parliament’s main website.
Local human rights defenders and activists have meanwhile intensified online advocacy and behind-the-scenes mobilisation efforts urging hotels, conference centres, religious institutions, and event facilities not to host the gathering. Campaigners argue that hosting the conference risks legitimising a broader anti-rights agenda targeting LGBTQI+ persons, women’s rights, sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), civic freedoms, and democratic participation across Africa.
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The conference, being organised under the theme “Consolidating Parliamentary Consensus: Advancing the African Charter on Family Values and Sovereignty,” is expected to bring together lawmakers, religious leaders, legal professionals, advocacy groups, and policymakers promoting the controversial Draft African Charter on Family, Sovereignty and Values (FSV).
Human rights organisations and civil society groups have warned that the proposed Charter threatens LGBTQI+ rights, women’s rights, SRHR protections, and existing African human rights frameworks, including safeguards under the Maputo Protocol. [The Maputo Protocol, adopted by the African Union in 2003, requires African nations to outlaw both discrimination against women and violence against women in employment, education, voting rights, marriage, and divorce, health care, and reproductive rights.]
