Justice Sophia Akuffo is one of the longest serving Supreme Court Judges in the country, and her approval by Parliament after her vetting today, June 16, 2017 will make her the 13th person to occupy the fourth highest position on the land.
Justice Akuffo was appointed to the country’s apex court 22 years ago by former President Jerry John Rawlings on November 30, 1992.
She has been one of the leading voices in the country on issues of human rights, rule of law and child’s rights.
She had served on the continent’s judicial bodies such as the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, where she ended up as its president.
In January 2006, she was elected one of the first judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights: initially elected for two years, she was subsequently re-elected until 2014 and is at present serving as Vice-President of the Court.
She was first elected as a Judge in 2006 for a two-year term and re-elected in 2008 for a six-year term. She was elected as vice-president of the African Court in September 2008 for a two-year term and re-elected in September 2010 for a final two-year term.
Ms. Justice Akuffo has also served as a justice of the Supreme Court for the past two decades.
She has been a member of the Governing Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force.
She is on the Disciplinary Committee of the General Legal Council and has held membership of several organisations, including the Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute.
Her publications include: The Application of Information & Communication Technology in the Judicial Process – The Ghanaian Experience, presented to the African Judicial Network Ghana (2002).
Justice Akuffo holds an LLB in Law from the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, and an LLM Master degree in Law from Harvard Law School, Cambridge Massachusetts, USA and has been a justice of the Supreme Court since 1995. She was trained as a lawyer under President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
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