Our Planet Climate and Geopolitics
An LGBT rights case that landed in Ghana’s Supreme Court on Wednesday poses a test for the World Bank, forcing it to choose between its mission of ending extreme poverty and its support for liberal values. The case brought by Richard Dela Sky, a journalist turned lawyer, challenges the constitutionality of draft legislation which is extreme in its homophobia – it makes identifying as LGBT a criminal act (gay sex is already a crime in Ghana). In a leaked memo earlier this year, Ghana’s finance ministry warned that $3.8 billion in World Bank financing was at risk. The bank froze new lending to Uganda last year after the country passed anti-gay legislation, which included jail terms for “promoting” homosexuality. Identity politics has become an unlikely faultline in the struggle for influence in Africa – while the US gets tough on Uganda, Putin’s Russia has put homophobia at the core of its defence of traditional values.