Her Honour Judge Sedinam Awo Kwadam (Mrs.)
The legal status of sex toys in Ghana has been thrown into sharp focus following a new paper by Circuit Court Judge Sedinam Awo Kwadam, who argues that the country’s obscenity laws are outdated and unclear.
In her paper titled “Roses Are Red, the Statute is Stale: The Obscenity Debate and Legal Limbo of Sex Toys in Ghana”, Judge Kwadam points to Section 281(1) of the Criminal and Other Offences Act, 1960 (Act 29), which criminalizes “obscene objects” without defining the term.
This, she warns, has left sex toys in a legal grey zone, open to arbitrary interpretation and enforcement.
To illustrate the dilemma, she presents the case of a man left impotent after an accident who relies on an intimacy device to sustain his marriage. While medically beneficial, such a device could still be classed as “obscene” under the current statute.
Judge Kwadam contends that Ghana’s law, inherited from colonial times, reflects outdated Victorian morality rather than the constitutional rights to dignity, privacy, and autonomy enshrined in the 1992 Constitution.
She calls for legislative reform to clearly exclude non-pornographic sexual wellness devices from obscenity restrictions, arguing that regulation should instead focus on safety, consumer protection, and health standards.
Legal analysts say the paper could ignite broader discussion on reforming Ghana’s criminal code to better reflect modern values, health needs, and human rights obligations.
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