ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
To avoid this, the 1992 Constitution has laid down in chapters 5 and 6 several fundamental human rights inclusive of all others conceivable in a modern democracy, the Directive Principles of State Policy and the duties of the citizen.
These lofty principles are largely meaningful when enforced by the courts.
We should therefore see the courts as our constitutional fortresses of refuge and treasure them.
If this is done constitutionalism will be deepened and unfortunate incidents like mob justice, which has surged in our beloved country recently, will be eliminated.
I congratulate the District Assembly, the chiefs and people of this District for providing the building for this court and I hope other Assemblies will emulate this example.
I appeal for the provision also of accommodation alongside court buildings for the convenient and independent administration of justice.
As we heard Her Ladyship Ms.
Sophia Akuffo, the Chief Justice say at her swearing-in ceremony, she is passionate about the delivery of quality justice.
In this connection it is one of her strong aspirations that the courts will be provided with solar power so as to facilitate the delivery of justice which entails much recording work and the consequent preparation of lengthy proceedings especially for the satisfactorily agitation of the appellate process and the ready supply of judgments, proceedings and several legal processes to litigants who access the courts.
Solar powering of the courts will greatly reduce the running costs of the courts, especially those in the non urban parts of the country, since the Judiciary’s budgetary allocations are often overburdened by its administrative expenses.
On this note, I once again congratulate the District Assembly, the chiefs and people of this District for helping the Judiciary to provide quality judicial service to this part of the country.
His Excellency, the President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, The Hon.
Attorney–General and Minister for Justice, Hon.
Regional Minster, Honourable Justices herein present, Nana, the President of the Regional House of Chiefs, The National President and other Executive Members of the Ghana Bar Association, Presidents and Executive Members of the various Regional Bar Associations, Past Presidents of the Ghana Bar Association, Distinguished Members of the Ghana Bar, Ladies and Gentlemen; I am most delighted and privileged to address the Ghana Bar Association at this important annual gathering, which, as usual, presages a new Legal Year, and serves as an opportunity for the Profession to focus on topical issues underpinning our nation’s development.
This is my first time of addressing this forum as Chief Justice and I warmly greet you whilst, at the same time, conveying due regards from the entire Judiciary of Ghana.
The focus of my address this morning is on the Developmental Impact of Excellence.
I chose this topic so it would serve as a vehicle for conveying to you my passionate belief that we can only make meaningful and enduring progress as a nation, if our development agenda is driven by the pursuit of excellence across the various facets of human progress in general and in the delivery of justice, in particular.
The age-old axiom –“Change is a law of life” – sums up the fact that human life and all that makes it possible is in a constant flux.
The better that flux, or change, in a positive direction, the better the outcome; that positive direction of change is what we call “development”.
All human activity is essentially inspired by development or the quest for conceptually better circumstances than those prevailing.
At times, however, the pursuit of change might take the form of destructiveness and what society at large would consider to be disorderly and undesirable because its change outcomes are calculated to serve parochial or personal benefits rather than the greater good of the national ends.
In effect, there is change that supports life, and there is change that spells eventual doom.
It is all a matter of the quality of the agenda.
Hence the steps the Judiciary has taken to play its part in the national fight against galamsey through the designation of some courts to try persons involved in illegal mining.
The scope and number of these courts will soon be expanded to cover illegal activities that deplete our forests, erode our soil, and destroy the viability of our precious water bodies.
On the other hand, when the quest for change is pursued with a broader goal, and in a responsible manner, improvement of the socio-economic circumstances of the people is achieved through the provision of amenities such as quality health infrastructure and services, educational facilities, improved agricultural outcomes and the assurance of jobs through the creation of factories and industries resulting in sustainable development.
Thus, from the foregoing demonstration, development is attainable at varying levels and degrees of responsibility and prudence.
At one extreme, we may focus on development through the strict application of laid down rules, standards, regulations, processes and procedures.
At the other end, developmental outcomes can still be attained even with the flouting of relevant norms for responsibility or the cutting of corners, aimed at personal, temporal or parochial gratification.
Safeguarding the higher and desirable end of achieving development through responsible practices and prudence is the pursuit or espousal of excellence.
In the mutual pursuit of assurance of justice for all Ghanaians, for whom both the Bench and Bar exist, excellence is an imperative.
The constant self-enquiry must be whether we would rather achieve development through inferior, unproductive or negative practices or through a strife for excellence in outcomes.
‘Can we do what we do in a better way?’
‘Is this as good as it gets or could it be better’?
We are all familiar with the grading structure of the pre-tertiary school system that ascribes to varying levels of performance, grades from Fail, to Pass, Fair, Credit, Average, Good, Very Good and to the highest grade which is Excellent.
Again, in the tertiary institutions, to gain an A + is the mark of excellence.
Excellence is thus the highest level of achievement or performance that presumes the application of the best or greatest effort in a field of endeavour.
Throughout history, and in every human culture, excellent outcomes in every effort has been seen as meriting its own rewards and benefits, sustainable development in an environment of peace and stability is also such reward.
Hence, in a democratic nation governed by the rule of law and practices aimed at the highest possible levels of progress, the pursuit and application of standards of excellence in all endeavours is key to achieving the best developmental outcomes.
Let us now look at the nexus between excellence and development.
Excellence, as opposed to mediocrity, leads to focused personal and systemic application which results in higher quality and levels of productivity.
When workers of public as well as private institutions put into their work the best possible effort, eschewing laziness and absenteeism, the result is increased levels of positive input that invariably yields a higher quantum of products and services.
Higher quantum of products and services means there is enough to go around and a surplus to market, both internally and externally; this garners more resources for development and rewards for the workforce.
Excellence in the provision of education at all levels leads to quality products from our educational institutions.
Excellent graduates at all levels of the educational spectrum ensure quality human resources to effectively and efficiently man the engine of growth and development of the nation.
This is a sector with a crucial need for excellence, for all involved in the educational enterprise, be they learners, tutors, administrators or policy makers, because of the importance of training the nation’s future manpower.
Where excellence fails in this sector, the overall outcome is mediocrity and incompetence.
Where such outcome impacts on the Justice delivery sector, there is proliferation of half-baked lawyers for instance.
Excellence, however, is not only to be expected in the provision of goods and services.
Excellence is equally important in our attitudes.
For those who are familiar with the teachings of the Bible, Jesus, in the Gospel of Matthew 5:48, admonishes his followers, thus, “ Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect .”
The particular context in which Christ calls on His followers to be perfect is in our attitude towards our fellow man, especially His expectation that we forgive our enemies and deal graciously with those who spite us and to work diligently while observing the highest standards of integrity.
The synthesis of this quality is to love our neighbours as ourselves.
Loving our neighbours as ourselves is commonly understood to mean not engaging in conduct that exploit them and put them at an unnecessary and undeserved disadvantage.
Excellence, or perfection, the highest possible standard of being, is achievable, otherwise God would not expect it of us.
Excellence in our attitudes also translates into discipline: Discipline on our roads would lead to a drastic reduction in road crashes and thus less injuries and loss of lives; discipline in our communities would lead to proper disposal of waste and better sanitation practices; discipline in our homes would ensure healthier marital and family relations which further translate into an effective and focused workforce, and confident, well-developed children; and certainly discipline in our offices, workplaces and the performance of our duties and responsibilities, leads to efficiency and exclusion of financial and professional malfeasance.
Distinguished Members of the Bar, our profession is especially tasked with the responsibility of moderating attitudes, within the context of law, order and the rule of law, towards excellence.
In our day-to-day work in advocacy, administration and delivery of justice, the onus rests on us, individually and collectively, to bring out the best in every citizen, and to make deviancy a less desirable option.
As the Law seeks outcomes that uphold freedom, justice and the rights of all, it is equally mandated to expect, indeed, demand responsibility of citizens to observe rules and regulations that make society function and function well.
A well-functioning society is well on the path of irreversible development.
But he or she who comes to equity must come with clean hands.
A noble profession such as ours requires that we do not act like taskmasters who burden our subjects or clients with obligations which we will not ourselves be subject to.
The truism is that: “No one is above the Law.”
The morality and equity that this principle engenders must encourage all segments of society to unreservedly give their best efforts to the development process.
Furthermore, our privileged positions and exposure ought not to become an avenue for professional malfeasance and depredation that casts doubt on integrity, creates public mistrust and breeds disaffection and ill-will against our members as a group, as well as against the justice delivery process.
Such disaffection and ill-will would inevitably undermine the effectiveness of judicial outcomes and poses a grave danger to national stability as it has a tendency to lead to increase in public resort to self-help.
The public’s just expectations from the justice delivery process places a charge on us to observe the optimal compliance with the ethics governing the Bench and the Bar.
Strict application of our ethical codes and norms is the straight route to excellence in the advocacy, administration and delivery of justice which is the linchpin of effective and accelerated development.
A lawless society is a society going nowhere and it is also the loudest condemnation of that society’s Judges and Lawyers.
Permit me at this point to acknowledge that it is true that our existing justice delivery system is fraught with a myriad of challenges (both systemic and human) that undermine its smooth and efficient operation.
These challenges do not conduce to the delivery of excellence in judicial administration and it is for these reasons that, as Chief Justice, I will bring into application all such feasible systems and means as will effectively deal with such challenges and optimize the delivery of quality outcomes.
Our pursuit of excellence is borne out of a conviction and recognition of the duty we owe to the people of Ghana in whose name and for whose benefit we exercise judicial authority.
Our citizens, more than anyone else, deserve a justice delivery system that is easily accessible and works well to protect their lives and property, that is cost and time effective and, more importantly, safeguards the integrity of the Republic.
The rapid and continuous deployment of Information Communication Technology in the Justice sector is one of the key ways in which we can assure excellence in justice delivery.
A few weeks ago, the Judiciary hosted a meeting of the key players in the administration of justice to discuss the design and implementation of an Integrated Case Tracking System for the Justice sector in Ghana.
The system, when fully established and deployed, will be able to track criminal cases from their introduction into the system to their eventual disposal by the courts.
The system will engender the inter-agency linkages necessary for the effective operation of the machinery of the administration of criminal justice.
In the last decade under the e-justice programme, there have been many significant developments in the application of technology toward the delivery of timely justice, such as the introduction of the Electronic Case Management System to monitor work flow in order to facilitate the speedy hearing or trial of cases with the view to improving the turnaround time for the disposal of cases assigned to our Judges.
The time has come to take this to the next level and position the Judicial Service to integrate the application of technology throughout the judicial process and track all stages.
For the business community, particularly investors both local and foreign, an efficient justice delivery system which guarantees expeditious results and produces certainty of judicial outcomes is a great incentive for business and the acceleration of national development.
This reinforces the necessity that every level of court in every part of Ghana be fully automated if we are to deliver justice in an efficient and effective manner, which brings me to the next point.
I appreciate the fact that automation of our courts nationwide invariably requires the availability of power to make it fully functional.
Fortunately, there have been rapid improvements in the availability of alternative and renewable energy and thus the requisite power to drive our technology-based changes need not be sourced from Akosombo.
Thus, serious consideration has been given to the application of Solar Energy in the plans for new and refurbished court buildings throughout the country, from the district level up.
It is more reliable and will allow the Judiciary to reduce its expenditure on electricity and channel saved resources into other key areas.
As we strive to improve the physical/logistical infrastructure that supports the justice delivery system, we must not forget that buildings and machines of themselves do not guarantee efficiency and excellence in our processes.
It is the human beings who work the efficiency machines that deliver desirable results.
It is for this reason that we have chosen as the theme for the new Legal Year, "Quality Judges Delivering Quality Justice".
I am sure there will be ample opportunity to expatiate further on this at another forum.
Suffice it to say that I strongly urge that, as players in the Justice sector, we must all pay more attention to human capacity building through continuous professional development all along the service delivery chain for lawyers both in private practice and in the employment of the State, police prosecutors among others.
The Judiciary, particularly in recent years, has sought opportunities for post-graduate studies for our Judges in various law disciplines to promote excellence and scholarship on the Bench.
In tandem with this, greater emphasis will be placed on programmed continuous judicial education through the Judicial Training Institute (the JTI) to ensure that through all means of educational mechanisms the performance of all Judges is improved and expanded.
With the requisite resources, the JTI will be geared towards becoming a centre of excellence for Judicial Education in Africa, offering training and sensitization programmes across the members states of the African Union.
As you begin your deliberations at the 2017 Bar Conference, I urge you all, to critically assess and make far-reaching recommendations on the developmental impact of excellence in all that we are called to do and commit to the implementation and application of such recommendations.
God Bless our Homeland Ghana, and may His blessings fall on us too.
Justices of the Superior Courts, Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Hon.
Gloria Afua Akuffo, Members of the Lower Court Bench here present, The President and Members of the Bar, Director and Lecturers of the Ghana School of Law, Newly qualified Lawyers, Parents, Relations and Friends, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
Permit me to welcome all of you to this expanded meeting of the General Legal Council which I have the honour and privilege to chair; and to perform the statutory duty of enrolling and calling to the Bar newly qualified lawyers.
Let me begin by congratulating all of you graduands here for having qualified to be enrolled as Lawyers.
This is no mean achievement.
In that vein, join me in thanking some people without whom you could not have realized the objective for this meeting.
First, your families: spouses, children, mothers, fathers, grandparents, brothers and sisters etc.
These are the people on whom you leaned when you needed support and encouragement when you embarked on this fruitful journey.
And for you, spouses, parents and guardians, I can imagine the tremendous pride as you watch your spouses, children and wards go through this ceremony.
Join me also in thanking the Director and the academic staff of the Ghana School of Law.
It is they who nurtured you as persons with graduate degrees in Law into becoming Lawyers.
I believe you will always remember some of these dedicated lecturers, particularly those who touched your lives in the defining moments of your professional legal training with their personal stories.
Our thanks should go beyond the academic staff to the administrative staff who kept the School functioning every day of your School life and who as part of the Ghana School of Law family, deserve our recognition.
The road to become Lawyers has not been smooth as you are aware.
But, as you must have been told by your Lecturers, do not delude yourselves into thinking that your education is now over.
This is, in fact, the beginning of your careers as Lawyers; a life that will be a journey from one lesson to another and a life that could take you perhaps in directions and/or destinations you cannot predict as you embark on this journey.
Indeed, the Legal Profession opens opportunities including, but not limited to, administration, judicial duties, private legal practice, business, and the like.
I must also add here that the study of law has no end, in the sense that almost every day the law develops and changes in a way which demands, as Lawyers, that you research in order to be abreast of the developments in all fields of the law.
You will soon realize that you cannot exclusively rely on the legal knowledge that you have acquired during your training.
To prove yourself worthy of the study of the law, you need to read on a wide range of topics and develop a legal mind that can be very incisive to help solve problems of the community in which you live.
This has become imperative in our contemporary world characterized by new and evolving technologies, challenges and opportunities.
The Bar, to which you are being called today, has a very important role to play in the maintenance of law and order as well as the rule of law.
In whatever area of endeavour you find yourselves, you will be met with challenges and/or problems.
As you commence your careers, I remind you of your special duty to the Legal Profession, to the Court, to your Clients and to the Country as a whole.
In effect, you have to be disciplined, truthful, diligent, courteous and humble in all you do, as such conduct demonstrates the virtues of life which make for nobility associated with the Legal Profession.
As new Lawyers, you are the eyes of the communities in which you live and the society’s expectation of you to live beyond reproach cannot be overemphasized.
I must emphasize here that the current state of the Bar is not the best due to the conduct of some Members.
We are witnessing these days an increase in the number of disciplinary cases before the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council against Lawyers, especially the younger ones at the Bar.
The root cause of most of these is lack of self-discipline and the desire to “get-rich-quick” on the part of young Lawyers.
Indeed, Apostle Paul admonishes in 1 Timothy 6: 10 thus: “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
Your integrity as a Lawyer is very crucial and you must jealously protect it, no matter the challenge or the temptation that presents.
As provided in Proverbs 22:1 , “a good name is better than riches”.
Let this be a guiding principle of your lives.
Be mindful of the fact that the General Legal Council will not close its eyes to any infractions on your part in the pursuit of your careers if it is brought to its attention.
This is obviously a great day in your lives and I do not intend keeping you here much longer.
This is one of the few moments in your lives when you can pause, look back with satisfaction at what you have achieved and also look forward to a new future whose doors have been opened by your enrolment at the Bar.
Make the most of it!
Congratulations once more, I thank you for your attention.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, Our esteemed Lecturer for today, Hon.
Judges and Magistrates, Members of the Bar Association, Provosts, Deans, Lecturers, Invited Guests, the Media and Students - It is an honour to be asked to chair a programme devoted to deep analysis of aspects of the Laws of Ghana.
The development of knowledge is a shared responsibility; in the sphere of the law, it is the shared responsibility of the Bench, the Bar and academia.
I believe that the Lecture Series launched today will provide the much needed opportunity for scholarly discourse on the Constitution and other laws of Ghana and also a continuous study of judicial decisions.
These lectures are intended to provide an opportunity for our eminent lawyers, academics and statesmen and women, to document their knowledge on aspects of the law for the benefit of posterity.
We may therefore also see this exercise as an opportunity to secure records of the historical knowledge of the development of aspects of our law, in the case of today, the Constitution.
Since the coming into force of 1992 Constitution and its application over the years, several issues relating to the acceptable import of some of its provisions have come up.
We are extremely privileged this evening to have with us an eminent lawyer, academic and international statesman to give us his insight on some of the contentious aspects of our Constitution.
The speaker for this evening is in a very strategic position to provide the needed answers to some of the recurrent constitutional concerns because, as we all are aware, Nana Dr.
S.K.B.
Asante was the Chairman of the Committee of Experts which formulated proposals for the 1992 Constitution.