Chief Justice lauds GIMPA’s Kwaku Agyeman-Budu

Chief Justice Kwasi Anin-Yeboah has commended the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Budu for his commitment to promoting efficient justice delivery in Ghana.

Justice Anin Yeboah cited among others a field investigation conducted by the renowned lawyer and his team on the state of courts in the region. They visited 8 courts across the region, meeting with the Regional Coordinating Council of the Region; as well as judges, magistrates, registrars and other judicial service staff of the courts they visited.

They also had the opportunity to speak to some court users.

Dr. Agyeman-Budu’s effort was recognized at this year’s Chief Justice’s Forum held on Thursday (November 17) in the Ashanti Regional capital Kumasi. According to the Chief Justice, these “findings would serve as a good source material” in the near future.

“I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Agyeman-Budu and his team”, the Chief Justice said.

The forum, under the theme: “improving access to justice in a pandemic through technology” was purposed to create a platform for stakeholders to deliberate on key issues in the justice sector and how they could work to enhance the efficiency and effective delivery of justice in the country.

The forum was also meant to serve as a feedback mechanism for the Service, where stakeholders would have knowledge of the concerns of the public, in order to come up with strategies that would improve its service delivery.

It would further offer an opportunity for the Service to disseminate information to court users and the general public on its operations to ensure transparency and accountability

Profile of Dr Agyeman-Budu

Kwaku Agyeman-Budu is a lawyer by profession and a legal academic. Since January 2013 he has taught various courses at the GIMPA Faculty of Law in Accra, Ghana.

In September 2013, he established the Justice Foundation (www.tjf-gh.org), an apolitical, not-for-profit, non-religious human rights organisation, with the sole purpose of increasing access to justice in Ghana.

In this capacity, he has represented many indigent criminal defendants in the courts of Ghana, pro bono.

Agyeman-Budu holds a Bachelor of Arts degree and a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Ghana, as well as a qualifying certificate in law from the Ghana School of Law.

He also holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in international law and justice and a doctorate in juridical science (SJD) from Fordham University School of Law in the United States. At present, he is the head of law centres within the Faculty of Law at GIMPA, where he oversees the management of the African Centre of International Criminal Justice (ACICJ) (www.acicj.org) and the African Centre on Law and Ethics (ACLE) (www.acle-gh.org).

He is also a member and co-ordinator of the Judicial Service of Ghana’s internship and clerkship committee, for which he oversees the placement of law students with courts in Ghana.

Dr Agyeman-Budu teaches constitutional law, international human rights and humanitarian law and intellectual property law at the GIMPA Faculty of Law.

His research interests include all of the areas above, as well as criminal law, international criminal law and justice, business and human rights, and legal ethics.

Associations
Kwaku Agyeman-Budu has been a member of the African Network of Constitutional Lawyers (ANCL) since April 2021.

He has also been a patron of the Adansiman Progressive Association (APA) since December 2020. From December 2020 to date, he has also served as a convener of the Coalition of Professionals for Peaceful Elections (CPPE).

He is a member of the Nairobi-based African Group of Experts in International Criminal Justice and the Ghana Bar Association, which he joined in October 2013.

Dr. Agyeman-Budu is also a Managing Attorney at Agyeman-Budu & Company PRUC, a law firm based in Accra, the capital city of Ghana.