They are bold and beautiful and are currently making strides as justices of Ghana’s Supreme Court, having been appointed at different periods by the President, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.
Out of some 14 Justices of the Supreme Court, these 5 women are making a name not only for themselves in legal history but on
We take a look at their profiles and achievements.
Agnes Mercy Abla Dordzie
Agnes Mercy Abla Dordzie was born in Taviefe-Deme in the Volta Region. After her basic and secondary education in various schools including the Ola Girls Secondary School in the Volta Region, she proceeded to the University of Ghana to study Law and Political Science from 1974 to 1977.
Dordzie worked as a national service personnel at the National Council on Women and Development at Koforidua from 1977 to 1978.
She then enrolled at the Ghana School of Law in 1979 and graduated in November 1980 with a Barrister-at-law degree. Justice Dordzie was called to the bar that same year.
She joined the Attorney General's Department as an assistant state attorney until January 1983. A month later, she moved to Nigeria on a contract appointment to work with the Minister of Justice at Calabar, Cross River State as a state council.
She later returned to Ghana to begin private legal practice at Adzoe Gbadegbe and Company.
She remained in private legal practice until May 1987 when she appointed magistrate at Somanya. In November 1991 she was elevated to a Circuit Judge, working in Accra.
She served as a High Court judge in Accra from November 1995 to November 2003.
From December 2003 to November 2005, she was the supervising High Court judge of the Ashanti Region.
Justice Dordzie was appointed by the Commonwealth Secretariat on the secondment of the Judiciary of Ghana to serve as a High Court judge in The Gambia and was later elevated to the Court of Appeal in July 2010.
In 2007 she pursued a master's degree program in International Relations at the Commonwealth Open University, British Virgin Islands, United Kingdom, graduating in 2010.
She also enrolled at the Institute of Theological Studies to study a six-month diploma course in Christian Counselling in 2014.
Agnes Mercy Abla Dordzie was one of four Supreme Court Justices nominated by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo on July 3, 2018.
Her nomination followed the retirement of some justices of the Supreme Court and the need to replace them.
Justice Mariama Owusu comes from Beposo in the Ashanti Region and had her secondary education at T.I. Ahmadiyya Secondary School, Kumasi (T.I. Amass) She was called to the Bar in 1981.
Justice Owusu went into private practice with Totoe Legal Services in Ghana. In 1990, she joined the bench as a district magistrate, and was later appointed a circuit court judge in 1992. She was elevated as a justice of the High Court in 2000.
In 2003, she was appointed as the supervising High Court judge for Sunyani until 2005.
A year after, in 2006, she was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal, and in 2019, she was appointed to the Supreme Court. She has been an active member of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ), serving as President of the Ghana chapter from 2014 to 2018.
She also served as a member of the Ethics Committee of the Judicial Service, and as a member of the Performing Assets Committee, Judicial Service, from 2010 to 2014.
Justice Getrude Torkornoo:
Justice Gertrude Torkornoo comes from Winneba in the Central Region. She had her secondary education at Wesley Girls’ High School in Cape Coast where she obtained her GCE Ordinary Level Certificate. She then attended Achimota School for the Advanced Level Certificate.
She studied Law & Sociology for her first degree at the University of Ghana and completed the Professional course in law at the Ghana School of Law in 1986.
She holds an LLM in Intellectual Property Law from Golden Gate University, San Francisco, USA and a Postgraduate Diploma (PGD) in International Law and Organizations from the then International Institute of Social Studies, the Hague, Netherlands.
She was called to the Ghana Bar in June 1986. She volunteered with FIDA Legal Aid Service and did an internship at Nabarro Nathanson in London in the early days of law practice.
She completed her pupillage with Fugar & Co., a law firm in Accra, became an Associate of the firm, and was later appointed a director of the firm in 1994.
From January 1997 to 2004, she became a Managing Partner at Sozo Law Consult.
She was appointed a Justice of the High Court in May 2004, elevated to the Court of Appeal in October 2012, and to the Supreme Court Bench in December 2019.
Key leadership positions she has held include; Supervising Judge for Commercial Courts; Chair, Editorial Committee of Association of Magistrates and Judges; Chief Editor for the development of the Judicial Ethics Training Manual; Vice-Chair of the E-Justice Steering and Oversight Committees and Vice-Chair of the Internship and Clerkship Program for the Judiciary.
She is a faculty member and member of the Governing Board of the Judicial Training Institute
Avril Lovelace-Johnson comes from Mankessim in the Central Region.
Lovelace-Johnson attained her Ordinary Level Certificate from Wesley Girls' High School, and proceeded to Aburi Girls' Senior High School for her Advanced Level Certificate.
After successfully completing her National Service, Justice Avril served as an Assistant State Attorney at the Attorney General's Department both in Accra and Koforidua for one year (from 1988 to 1989).
In 1994, Lovelace-Johnson was appointed a District Magistrate and she served in that capacity for 8 years until she received an appointment as a Justice for Accra and Tema High Courts in 2002.
She also worked there for a decade until she was appointed a Court of Appeal Justice in 2012.
Prior to that, she was acting as an additional Court of Appeal Justice as well as a Justice of the High Court in The Gambia, a position given by the Commonwealth Secretariat in London from 2005 to 2009.
Other positions she has held include, Director of the Public Complaints and Courts Inspectorate Unit of the Judicial Service of Ghana, Vice-President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana and former Honorary Council Member of the Planned Parenthood Association of Ghana.
Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu:
Henrietta Joy Abena Nyarko Mensa-Bonsu was born in Kumasi and attended Wesley Girls High School for her secondary education from 1970 to 1977.
She attended the University of Ghana for her Bachelor of Law (LLB) and graduated with First Class Honours in 1980. She pursued professional law at the Ghana School of Law from 198-0 to 1982 and was called to the Bar that same year.
After, she went to Yale University where she obtained a Master of Laws (LLM) in 1985.
Prof Mensa-Bonsu came back to Ghana the same year she had her LLM and was employed by the University of Ghana, Legon, as a lecturer with the Faculty of Law and rose through the ranks to attain full professorship in 2002 and in 2003, she was elected a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Prior to her appointment to the Supreme Court, she was a Ghanaian law professor who served as a member of the United Nations Independent Panel On Peace Operations.
Professor Mensa-Bonsu is a Professor of Law at the University of Ghana, School of Law, and former Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy. She is also fellow and current President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Mensa-Bonsu has researched and published extensively on Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Family Law, and Children’s Rights. Currently, she teaches Criminal Law, Jurisprudence, and Conflict Resolution Theory and Practices at the University of Ghana School of Law.
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo appointed in 2020 to the Supreme Court.
Prof Mensa-Bonsu was also the ECOWAS nominee on the International Technical Advisory Committee for the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and Vice-Chairperson of the ECOWAS Working Group on the Harmonisation of Business Laws on non-OHADA States.
All 5 women justices of the Supreme Court
