ghananlpcommunity/ghana-gov-speeches-sentences huggingface dataset:
We cannot do this without the support and attention of all stakeholders.
The Bangalore Principles of Judicial Conduct and the Latimer House Principles are international instruments that Ghana’s Judiciary are committed to.
In order to shake off these tags, training needs to be supplemented with consistent culture changing strategies to deepen ethical models of work in the courts.
Judicial administration must close the gaps through which court users are subjected to exploitation and rent seeking behavior.
This demands the removal of as much of the human inter-facing that court work is exposed to.
Court officials are expected to work with independence, with impartiality, competence, and integrity.
Much of these ethical values are lost in the heavy traffic of human inter-facing between court officials and court users, including unknown brokers functioning around the courts.
The vision for producing culture-changing re-orientation programs cannot be achieved without the active partnership and support of stakeholders, including communities of businesses, and donors.
Indeed as we speak, steps are being taken to revert to the opening and closure of assizes, which ensured that jurors remained with the judiciary for only a short season.
The current situation where one juror can be attached to the courts for years, leaving their full time work for long periods, and earning from both institutions through the same public purse, needs to be seriously deconstructed.
In order to do so effectively, this vision contemplates the engagement of the private sector in jury services, as is the situation in virtually every country.
I wish to humbly ask for the cooperation of the private sector in implementing strategies such as this, because we need to increase the ethical contents of integrity and efficiency in criminal justice delivery.
I am glad to report that as part of my immediate goals, which prioritizes the provision of directions, guidelines, and manuals to increase transparency and due process in court work, twelve items that range from Administrative Guidelines and Practice Directions, are available to be revealed to the public today, along with the Vision Statement.
They cover Practice Directions on Commercial Pre-Trial Settlement under order 58 as amended by CI 133 Practice Directions in Respect of Prerogative Writs Involving Chiefs and Chieftaincy Issues Practice Directions on Award of Cost Practice Directions on Plea Bargaining Practice Directions on Adjournments and Adoption of Proceedings in Part Heard Trials Practice Directions on Court Connected ADR under Order 32 as Amended by CI 133 Practice Directions for Determination of Applications for Injunctions to restrain Burial of a Deceased Person Administrative Directions to Aid Expeditious Disposal of Trial by Jury Administrative Guidelines on Using the Supreme Court Registry Administrative Guidelines on Generation of Suit Numbers Administrative Guidelines for procedures For Online publication of judgments and rulings Administrative Guidelines on Court room Proceedings Under the implementation of the goals in this Vision, Manuals and Guidelines will be multiplied for the use of stakeholders, and to cover the myriad lines of court work, levels of court, divisions of courts, the functions of external service providers etc etc.
The purpose of this is to increase transparency, competence, due process and integrity in court work.
How far and fast can we go?
It is said that if you want to walk fast, go alone.
But if you want to go far, travel with others.
I earnestly do not think that when dealing with such a national responsibility as justice delivery, anyone can even move fast when walking alone.
This is why the Judiciary seeks partners in developing effective programs for culture change, and other interventions that will increase ethical models of work in the Judicial Service of Ghana.
Article 125 (1) of the 1992 Constitution states that ‘ justice emanates from the people and shall be administered in the name of the Republic by the Judiciary .’
It is my respectful view that the Judiciary owes a duty to draw the attention of the nation to how the nation is handling matters of justice in various facets of life - Commercial justice in the way the financial sector is handling issues of interest rates and debts, social justice through cultural practices around family and inheritance, juvenile justice, and justice for the vulnerable, to the extent that the knowledge presented is gleaned from data from courts.
Your Excellency, Nana Chair, in a few more weeks, I intend to call a Land Conference for discussion on the huge numbers of land disputes streaming across all regions of our country.
What is causing so much litigation over land, when land is the most effective source of equity and capital for business and prosperity?
Could the high cost of doing business in Ghana be related to the incessant litigation over land?
How are we affecting the peace index of the nation, through this high volume of land litigation?
What must we all do differently?
As administrator of justice on behalf of the citizenry, I deem it my bounden duty to call for such conversations that will assist us all to break these high walls against the easy flow of capital and investments into our country because of the uncertainty of security of investment in landed property.
You will find that goals such as this, are provided for in the framework we are gathered to launch today.
Please walk with us to go far in achieving all the goals set out in this Strategic Framework of Vision so that as a nation, we can practicalize ethically compliant behavior in the Judicial Service and the Judiciary, and within our social economy.
ASSETS, DIGITALIZATION, DUE PROCESS I will now address the ‘A’ which stands for Assets, along with ‘D’, which stands for Due Process and Digitalization.
While the goals set for obtaining assets are very broad, ranging from capacity building for a well trained work force, high use of technology, the consistent, assured and well-negotiated support of partners, good housing for all judges and all senior to medium level staff, allow me to dwell on one set of assets that must be prioritized, and for which the Judiciary seeks urgent partnership.
The digitalization of our paper records.
We are all familiar with the position that the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority is the Registry of interests in cars and regulating authority over who can drive in this country.
We are also familiar with the position that the Lands Commission is the registry for interests in lands.
What I crave your indulgence to notice is that the Judicial Service of Ghana is the general registry for all rights, entitlements and obligations that are the subject matter of orders, rulings and judgments from the courts.
We have your records on your rights, and we keep your records on your rights.
The courts have been existence for more than a century.
Anyone whose family issues, commercial interests, employment rights have been pronounced on must find these records in the courts.
But what is the state of our documentation?
It is very difficult to contemplate.
Nana Chair, Your Excellency, there is an urgent need to build a modern archive center to store all records emanating from the courts in a coherent and orderly manner that can be easily retrieved whenever citizens and court users need their records.
At the same time as the records are being stored, they must be digitized for electronic storage and easy retrieval.
Because citizens cannot wait when they need their records for us to wade through the boxes and heaps.
Again, it is only after digitization that we can even remotely anticipate effective e-justice.
Because virtual trials cannot be conducted without electronic dockets.
It is a strong goal of this Vision Statement to move registries into paper less modes as soon as possible.
The LEADing Justice vision is anchored on a high use of technology to increase speed and transparency in the justice delivery process.
Goals have been set for digital libraries so that all staff and Judges will have access to learning, notwithstanding which part of the country they are in.
Goals have also been set to obtain centrally managed transcription rooms for early processing of court proceedings so that requests for court processes cannot be affected by localized interests within the court room.
This will remove the burden of court users paying court room recorders for producing transcripts of their proceedings.
It ensures that records are made available to stake holders without unnecessary waste of time and costs through travelling to a registry, queuing to pay for a record, and being told to go and come back for the said record.
It should be possible to serve parties who have nationally recorded phone numbers and email addresses electronically, while we wait for all citizens to obtain phone numbers and email addresses.
We have 439 courts now, thanks to the dedicated commitment of Government since 2020, through the District Assembly Common Fund, to make courts accessible to all citizens.
The Judiciary is extremely grateful for the 100 new courts that we keep commissioning.
All of these courts are making orders, and churning out proceedings.
Beyond this, there are also many justice delivery processes that if supported electronically and digitally, will reduce inefficiency, costs and uncertainty in litigation.
Land mapping, verification of property details from records on property rates with District Assemblies, verification of details of vehicles from DVLA, verification of account holding in banks during execution processes, can all be easily done via dedicated and authenticated e-processes between the courts and the relevant institution, saving staff from institutions spending productive time in court just to relay information.
Many of these electronic verification processes will cut out the horrible specter of forgeries that the courts sometimes experience.
To achieve these goals, the JSG is requesting for active partners that do not insist that we must employ procurement models that prevent the achievement of the goals set.
Partners who will walk far with us, appreciating the independence, impartiality and integrity of the Judiciary, and help us to achieve fast.
Partnerships in programs that are not limited to one year, two years, or three years, but medium and long term periods that enable validation and stability of all systems introduced.
Every stakeholder is kindly invited to share ideas and resources with us, for the Judiciary is a public institution created to administer justice that first emanates from the citizens.
All facilities being discussed are designed to enable the acceleration of court services for the nation.
With the support of all stakeholders in justice delivery, we can build together, build faster, and build stronger.
Still on the subject of Assets, I must tell the story of one heart-warming partnership that is already yielding results: the partnership between the Judiciary and the Ghana Bar Association.
It started in the Kaneshie court, which had suffered old and tired chairs at the bar, heat, and a very sorry state of protection of documentation.
Last Christmas, under the able leadership of its national executive, the Ghana Bar Association committed to a ‘ one lawyer, one chair’ facility for all courts across Ghana.
The Memorandum of Understanding reached to cover this relationship clarified that the judiciary would determine the specifications of chairs, locations, and numbers of chairs needed, and the Bar would buy the chairs to ensure decent furniture in court rooms, thereby lessening the budget for court room furniture for the whole nation.
Within weeks, the Greater Accra Regional Bar, had provided new chairs, and fans for the kaneshie court rooms.
This leadership drive is already being replicated in other court rooms around the country.
The Volta Regional Bar, the Bono Regional Bar, the Western Regional Bar, have all moved in this direction.
I am confident that very soon, the effect of this partnership will be felt in the ambiance of any court room that would have otherwise suffered a lowering of standards because of the heavy toll on the budget of the Judicial Service.
It is many of such institutional partnerships that we seek, partnerships that quietly implement any gap in access to justice, so that the effect of the rule of law will continue to translate to increase in investments, stability of capital, and the peace of the nation, at an accelerated rate.
Nana Chair, Your Excellency, in closing, allow me acknowledge with gratitude the kind help and support of all Judges, staff, lawyers and external friends in this journey of leadership that is less than one year old.
The support of my colleagues on the Supreme Court, the support of the Court of Appeal bench, including retired Judges, the support of the Judicial Council, the General Legal Council and its committees, and the support of the entire legal sector, has been outstanding.
The Judges, Lawyers and Staff who help to produce any guideline, direction or manuals will be duly acknowledged for posterity.
But today, I must especially acknowledge the help of those who have helped in producing the first compendium of Guidelines, Directions, and Manual before us.
They are Practice Directions on Award of Cost: H/L Ernest Owusu Dapaah JA H/L Justice Dorothy Kingsley Nyinah H/H Ellen Ofei Ayeh Charles Idan Practice Directions on Adjournments and Adoption of Proceedings in Part Heard Trials in Courts: H/L Justice Richard Adjei-Frimpong (JSC) H/L Justice Yaw Darko Asare (JSC) H/L Justice Bright Mensah (JA) H/L Justice Dorothy Kingsley-Nyinah H/H Jojo Hagan H/H Arit Nsemoh H/H Afia Owusuaa Appiah Practice Directions on Commercial Pre-Trial Settlement under High Court Civil Procedure Amendment Rules 2020, C. I.
133: H/L Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah (JA) H/L Justice Jerome Noble Nkrumah (JA) Mr.
Alex Nartey Practice Directions on Court Connected ADR under High Court Civil Procedure Amendment Rules 2020, C. I.
133: H/L Justice Koomson (JSC) H/L Justice Angelina Mensah-Homiah (JA) H/L Justice Jerome Noble Nkrumah (JA) Alex Nartey Practice Directions in respect of Prerogative Writs involving Chiefs/Chieftaincy Issues H/L Justice Samuel Alan Brobbey (JSC) (Rtd) H/L Justice Philip Bright Mensah (JSC) H/H Angela Attachie Practice Directions on Plea Bargaining 2024 H/L Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe (JA) H/L Justice Marie-Louise Simmons (J) Evelyn Keelson Practice Directions for Determination of Applications for Interlocutory Injunctions to Restrain Burial of a Deceased Person H/L Ernest Owusu Dapaah JA H/L Justice Francis Obiri (J) Administrative Guidelines on Procedures for Online Publication of Judgments and Rulings: H/L Justice Jennifer Abena Dadzie (JA) H/L Justice Barbara Tetteh-Charway (J) Administrative Directions on Courtroom Proceedings: H/L Justice Jennifer Abena Dadzie (JA) H/L Justice Emmanuel Lodoh (J) H/L Justice Tandoh Aboagye (J) Patricia Naa Afarley Dadson Dennis Adjei Dwomoh Administrative Directions to aid Expeditious Disposal of Trials by Jury H/L Justice Afia Serwaa Asare-Botwe (JA) H/L Justice Angelina Mensah Homiah (JA) H/L Justice Frederick Tetteh (J) H/L Justice Lydia Osei Marfo (J) Administrative Guidelines on using the Supreme Court Registry H/H Ellen Ofei Ayeh H/L Samuel Asiedu JSC Administrative Guidelines on the Generation of Suit Numbers: John K. Bannerman Papa Kwasi Maisie Practice Administrative Directions Editorial Committee: H/L Justice Dr.
Ernest Owusu-Dapaa (JA) H/L Justice Ama Sefenya Ayittey(J) Patricia Naa Afarley Dadson(ESQ) Dennis Adjei Dwomoh (ESQ) Selali Woanyo (ESQ) Miss Judith Lois Abena Addo I must especially mention the secretariats of the Office of the Chief Justice and Office of the Judicial Secretary who have worked tirelessly and with great cheer to bring us to the event of today.
I acknowledge members of the planning committee of this event… God bless you all.
God bless our homeland Ghana, and bless the LEADing Justice Initiatives.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS By Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo, The Honorable Chief Justice of The Republic of Ghana 32 ND ANNUAL AFRICA PEACE AWARDS [1] “The critical role of women in justice and peace building in Africa- the Ghana experience’’.
Luke Wood, President of California State University, Sacramento Prof.
Ernest Uwazie, Director, Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution (CAPR) Members of Faculty, Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution Students of the Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen; To state my delight in sharing this evening with you in a short sentence or phrase would be to mute this truly exceptional experience that started on a barmy evening spent here in Sacramento in April 2011.
That was the year that Chief Justice Georgina Theodora Wood was the guest of honor for the annual peace awards of the Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution (CAPR).
I came from San Francisco, where I was doing an LLM Program in Intellectual Property Law, to join her that evening.
I thoroughly enjoyed that evening, and tucked it away with the pleasantness that San Francisco, Santa Rosa, and my different bits of engagements in that year away from my regular work as a Judge had become.
Little did I know that it would be connected to today.
As I sat in the experience of the Family Justice Center yesterday, I began to appreciate how significant that evening in April 2011 was.
Having taken the baton in the relay of Chief Justice of Ghana in June 2023, I knew without any shadow of doubt yesterday that I will do all I can in my power to continue with the nurturing of seeds and plantings of an integrated family justice system that my predecessors have securely sown in Ghana.
So allow to begin by thanking God for this partnership between Ghana and the Centre for African Peace and Conflict Resolution (CAPR).
It is certainly bringing light to many in circumstances that darken the path of humanity – when the danger to life and well-being is found within the walls of ‘home’, and not outside its walls.
I am profoundly honored by the kind invitation to address you on this 32 nd Annual Africa Peace Awards of the CAPCR, and to receive the award of Judicial Service of Ghana.
I also thank the Director of the Centre, Prof.
Ernest Uwazie and the Board for the invitation.
I appreciate the CAPCR’s strong partnership with Ghana’s Judiciary in promoting strength in access to justice, especially through Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms.
I assure you that your efforts have borne much fruit in Ghana, and will continue to do so, under my leadership.
I am also grateful to the University community and friends of the CAPCR from various communities in and around Sacramento for the warm welcome that we have received since our arrival here.
Let me also take the opportunity to congratulate the Centre for the historic achievement of 32 years in one of the best causes that resources can be mobilized for.
Distinguished guests, in addressing the theme of “ The critical role of women in peace and justice building in Africa – The Ghana Experience ”, I would like us to contemplate one of Ghana’s rich legacies to the comity of nations – in addition to jollof and chocolate, of course.
I speak of an adinkra symbol called ‘mpatampo’.
But before shedding full light on the ‘mpatampo’ symbol, I trust that are all agreed that justice is the ethical, philosophical presumption that people ought to be treated equally, impartially, fairly, properly, and reasonably by others.
Justice is an expression of the mutual recognition of every person’s basic dignity, and an acknowledgement that if we are to live together in an interdependent community, then we must do so in a manner that allows us to thrive, and not just survive.
Justice also requires that laws are crafted to protect from harm and where harm is alleged, opportunity is given for remedial action to be taken through which both the accuser and the accused receive a morally right consequence merited by their actions, or inactions.
What is significant though, is that within this cut, dried, bamboo straightened order, human failings and strengths often call for some middle road that the adjudicatory process managed by courts cannot effectively touch and correct.
Clearly, peace building must not only resolve injustice in non-violent ways, but must transform any fossilized conditions that have the potential to cause the degeneration of conflict.
Peace building must respond to conflict management and produce a landscape that is conducive to conflict prevention; including transformation into post-conflict harmonies.
It is in such forward looking perspectives, that we can expect to build societies, institutions, and communities that are better able to sustain peace and justice.
This is why a focus on restorative justice, and not just retributive justice, will assist to build more resilient societies.
In the akan language group spoken by many ethnic groups from the middle and southern belts of Ghana, the word ‘adinkra’ means ‘saying good bye’.
That is the meaning of the word.
However, beyond the word, Adinkra is also a language that is not spoken.
It is a language found in artistic expressions, each symbol communicating a phrase, a concept and a philosophy.
Whenever you visit Ghana, you will find adinkra symbols wrapping around you, from the symbol of a stool at the airport, which is the symbol for welcome, or akwaaba, to adinkra symbols emblazoned in jewelry, furniture, shoes, books, to icons adopted as trade marks, and for institutional identity.
History informs that the adinkra language evolved in the weaving of fabrics, much like our well known kente, through which the Akan peoples communicated inter-generationally.
Today, it is part of Ghana’s identity, along with kente, gold, chocolate, and jollof.
One well known adinkra symbol is the ‘mpatampo’.
The concept of ‘Mpata’, or pacification, starts whenever there is conflict and steps are taken towards conflict management and resolution.
The one who has caused hurt is urged to, and may make an offer for peace.
The ‘mpata’, becomes the peace offering – a doctrine well known in the Judeo Christian tradition.
It may take the form of sending a message to the harmed through a mediator, or a drink, or any token of courtesy.
If the offering is accepted, the ‘would have been’ victim must show acceptance of the pacification by tying a knot of peace with the offeror.
The akan word for ‘knot’ is ‘mpow’.
The process of tying an ‘mpatapow’ (a pacification knot) therefore reflects that an offer of pacification has been accepted, and disputants have moved from conflict into reconciliation.
Reconciliation starts the journey of restoration.
In ancient Akan tradition therefore, it has always been understood that restorative justice is available from a process of steps.
Healing from conflict requires steps of movement, until parties whose faces had turned from each other, begin to face each other, reach their hands towards each other and work with unified hands to show the world that they have arrived at a common place.
The mpatapow is the evidence of the symphonies of grace, humility, acceptance, reintegration and peace.
This symphony however cannot be premised on rules of evidence, or strict apportionment of blame and benefits, as retributive justice based on law is designed to work.
Fortunately, it is the beautiful restorative justice process that all alternative dispute resolution mechanisms understand and underscore.
Not retributive, but restorative justice.
So in reporting to you regarding ‘ the Ghanaian experience of the critical role of women in justice and peace building ’, I wish to focus on these threads of restorative justice that have always been part of our justice system, and are becoming increasingly mainstreamed into our formal justice delivery structures.
As you may well know, the sources of law in Ghana’s Constitution include the common law of Ghana.
By article 11 (2) ‘ The common law of Ghana shall comprise the rules of law generally known as the common law, the rules generally known as the doctrines of equity, and the rules of customary laws including those determined by the Superior Courts of Judicature ’.