Western far-right groups and the Accra ‘Family Values’ conference

By Prof. Jeffrey Haynes

In a few weeks’ time, Accra hosts the Fourth Interparliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty. The first three conferences in this series were all held in Uganda. The fourth is a ‘break out’ event – with the focus in and on one country – Uganda – replaced by a transfer of attention and focus to Ghana. The conference is publicised as an African gathering of parliamentarians defending African culture and sovereignty. In reality, however, it is part of a prolonged Western far-right initiative to roll back human rights in Africa, including Ghana.

The conference is billed as an African event. It is true that African parliamentarians – primarily from Uganda and Ghana – will be the main participants. Yet, the direction, financing and ideological focus of the conference is not African. North American and European far-right groups with Christian conservative values are the real initiators and drivers of the conference. Behind the local faces and the ‘protection-of-African-sovereignty’ language, wealthy and influential Western Christian Right actors – linked to President Donald Trump – are determined to impose their alien ideas and values on Africa. Some African parliamentarians have taken the bait, enthusiastically acting as Western far-right proxies to give the conference an African gloss.

Influence of Western far-right groups

Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International – a US-based organisation designated as a ‘hate group’ by the Southern Poverty Law Centre – and Henk Jan van Schothorst, founder and CEO of Christian Council International (CCI), Netherlands, are the drivers of the conference. Their aim is to spread their anti-rights narratives into Africa, and Ghana is the next place where their campaign continues. For more than a decade, far-right groups including Family Watch International and Christian Council International, have poured vast sums into Africa, targeting anti-rights values and ideologies under the guise of protecting ‘African traditional family values’.

Slater and van Schothorst are aided and abetted by Ghanaian parliamentarians, including Second Deputy Speaker, Andrew Asiamah, and key sponsors of Ghana’s ‘Human Sexual Rights and Family Values Bill, 2025’ – aka the ‘anti-gay’ bill – Samuel Nartey George, Member of Parliament for Ningo-Prampram and Minister for Communication, Digital Technology & Innovation and Rev. John Ntim Fordjour, Member of Parliament for Assin South and former Deputy Minister of Education.

Van Schothorst’s organisation, the CCI, publicly claims credit for drafting the so-called ‘African Charter on Family Sovereignty and Values’ (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E_yEe4XYW1sG10shdlR0fNJeNCGNMgJL/view) which the forthcoming Accra conference seeks to advance. The draft charter is a document designed to enshrine discrimination and roll back women’s rights across Africa. The Accra conference is the fourth in a series – the others were held in Uganda, where President Museveni signed into law a draconian ‘anti-gay law’ in 2023, with homosexual activities punishable by death – aiming forcefully to advance a document that Slater, van Schothorst, and their networks intend to submit to the African Union for ratification. Ghana’s position as a bastion of democracy in a region undergoing democratic backsliding is being used by Slater and van Schothorst to lend legitimacy to their anti-rights agenda.

Fears of Western-style modernisation

Many Ghanaians are concerned about the influence of Western-style modernisation in Ghana which they believe is a driver of cultural erosion and moral decline. Some believe that rapid adoption of Western norms creates a ‘moral vacuum’, replacing traditional values such as communal responsibility, respect for elders, and modesty with individualism, materialism, and corruption. The focus of the Fourth Interparliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty appears to fit well with such concerns. What is overlooked, however, is that African concerns have been hijacked by Western far-right groups, while Africa’s long history of tolerance and a harmonious inter-cultural living is ignored.

Conference hijacked by Western far-right ideologies

Critics, including Kemi Akinfaderin of Fòs Feminista, argue that these meetings impose Western anti-liberal agendas under the guise of defending tradition, often attempting to address Western ‘concerns’ like falling birth rates, which are not relevant to the African context where rapid population growth is seen by some as a challenge at a time of climate change and associated demographic pressures on natural resources.

Critics also contend that the Fourth Interparliamentary Conferences on Family Values and Sovereignty overlooks Africa’s historically diverse and fluid social structures, presenting instead a narrow and ‘imported’ definition of family that ignores the continent’s history of tolerance and community-focused ‘living well together’.

Then there is what critics identify as ‘colonialism in reverse’. Some activists argue that such initiatives, rather than protecting African sovereignty, represent a form of ‘cultural colonialism’, with Western, right-wing Christian ideologies, attempting to rewrite African legal frameworks.

Finally, there is concern among Ghanaian critics that the Fourth Interparliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty will be honoured by the presence of President John Dramani Mahama. As yet, however, there is no official confirmation that he will open, or attend, the Conference.

President Mahama is publicly scheduled to host a different high-level conference in Accra just weeks later, from June 17–19, 2026, focused on reparatory justice and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Previous editions of the Inter-Parliamentary Conference, held in Uganda, were opened by President Museveni. While it is customary for a host president to attend such international summits, current reports emphasise the roles of parliamentary and faith leaders rather than the President’s attendance.

The writer is an Emeritus Professor of Politics at London Metropolitan University, UK.