Dixon Kwame Afreh (1933 - 2004) was a

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

academic An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

and a former Deputy Electoral Commissioner.

Early life and education

Afreh's

secondary education Secondary education or post-primary education covers two phases on the International Standard Classification of Education scale. Level 2 or lower secondary education (less commonly junior secondary education) is considered the second and final pha ...

was at the

Achimota School Achimota School ( /ɑːtʃimoʊtɑː/ ), formerly Prince of Wales College and School at Achimota, later Achimota College, now nicknamed Motown, is a co-educational boarding school located at Achimota in Accra, Greater Accra, Ghana. The school wa ...

between 1949 and 1954. He then studied

law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...

at the

University of Birmingham , mottoeng = Through efforts to heights , established = 1825 – Birmingham School of Medicine and Surgery1836 – Birmingham Royal School of Medicine and Surgery1843 – Queen's College1875 – Mason Science College1898 – Mason Univers ...

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

, completing in July 1958. He also studied for a Masters in Law at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

from October 1958 to October 1960.

Career

Kwame Afreh was called to the bar at

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn is one of the four Inns of Court in London to which barristers of England and Wales belong and where they are called to the Bar. (The other three are Middle Temple, Inner Temple and Gray's Inn.) Lincoln ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

in February 1960. He returned to Ghana after his studies and worked in various capacities.

Academic work

Kwame Afreh joined the

University of Ghana The University of Ghana is a public university located in Accra, Ghana. It the oldest and largest of the thirteen Ghanaian national public universities. The university was founded in 1948 as the University College of the Gold Coast in the Br ...

and was a lecturer with the

Faculty of Law A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

between 1962 and 1975. He became a Senior Lecturer at the Law Department as well as the Acting Dean of the Faculty of Law. He was also the Master of Commonwealth Hall at the same university. During his vetting leading to his appointment to the

Supreme Court of Ghana The Supreme Court of Ghana is the highest judicial body in Ghana. Ghana's 1992 constitution guarantees the independence and separation of the Judiciary from the Legislative and the Executive arms of government.1992 Constitution Article 125( ...

, he listed

John Atta Mills John Evans Fiifi Atta Mills (21 July 1944 – 24 July 2012) was a Ghanaian politician and legal scholar who served as President of Ghana from 2009 until his death in 2012. He was inaugurated on 7 January 2009, having defeated the governing party ...

, a former

President of Ghana The president of the Republic of Ghana is the elected head of state and head of government of Ghana, as well as commander-in-chief of the Ghana Armed Forces. The current president of Ghana is Nana Akufo-Addo, who won the 2020 presidential elec ...

and law lecturer,

Kwamena Ahwoi Kwamena Ahwoi (born 13 October 1951) is a Ghanaian academic and politician, who served as Minister for Local Government and Rural Development from 1990 to 2001 in the National Democratic Congress (NDC) government, during the reign of Jerry Raw ...

, also a former law lecturer as well as former

Minister for Foreign Affairs A foreign affairs minister or minister of foreign affairs (less commonly minister for foreign affairs) is generally a cabinet minister in charge of a state's foreign policy and relations. The formal title of the top official varies between coun ...

in the

Rawlings government This is a listing of the ministers who served in Jerry Rawlings's National Democratic Congress government during the Fourth Republic of Ghana. This started on January 7, 1993, after 11 years of military rule by Rawlings. He retired from the Ghana ...

as his former law students. The list also included some of the judges already on the Supreme Court.

Legal work

From 1975 until 1978, he was a Chief State Attorney at the Attorney General's Department in Accra. He was also the Director of Legal Education at the

General Legal Council The General Legal Council is the body that regulates the Legal Profession in Ghana. It was set up in 1960 by an act of parliament, The Legal Profession Act, 1960 (Act 32). Its role was to oversee legal education and the legal profession in the cou ...

between April 1973 and June 1980. In June 1994, He was appointed a Justice of the Court of Appeal of Ghana. Afreh was appointed as a

Supreme Court Judge A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

John Kufuor John Kofi Agyekum Kufuor (born 8 December 1938) is a Ghanaian politician who served as the President of Ghana from 7 January 2001 to 7 January 2009. He was also Chairperson of the African Union from 2007 to 2008. Kufuor's career has been sp ...

in March 2002. He presided over the

Fast Track The fast track is an informal English term meaning "the quickest and most direct route to achievement of a goal, as in competing for professional advancement". By definition, it implies that a less direct, slower route also exists. Fast track or F ...

Court which sentenced two former ministers, Kwame Peprah, former Minister for Finance, Ibrahim Adam, Former Minister of Food and Agriculture and George Yankey, a former Director of Legal Sector, Private and Financial Institutions of the Ministry of Finance to two years imprisonment in April 2003.

Other work

Afreh became Head of Administration and later Financial Controller at the

Pan-African News Agency PanaPress or Pana or PanAfrican News Agency is an African news agency. It has its headquarters in Dakar, Senegal. It was founded on 20 July 1979 in Addis Ababa by the OAU and was relaunched by UNESCO in 1993. It provides news in English, French, ...

Dakar Dakar ( ; ; wo, Ndakaaru) (from daqaar ''tamarind''), is the capital and largest city of Senegal. The city of Dakar proper has a population of 1,030,594, whereas the population of the Dakar metropolitan area is estimated at 3.94 million in 2 ...

Senegal Senegal,; Wolof: ''Senegaal''; Pulaar: 𞤅𞤫𞤲𞤫𞤺𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭 (Senegaali); Arabic: السنغال ''As-Sinighal'') officially the Republic of Senegal,; Wolof: ''Réewum Senegaal''; Pulaar : 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 � ...

between June 1981 and October 1992. He was also Deputy Electoral Commissioner of the

Electoral Commission of Ghana The Electoral Commission of Ghana(EC) is the official body in Ghana responsible for all public elections. Made up of seven members, its independence is guaranteed by the 1992 Ghana constitution. The current commission was established by the Elec ...

from 1992 to 1994. He returned to legal work following this appointment. He was the Commissioner for Information and Cocoa Affairs under the

Armed Forces Revolutionary Council The Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC) was a group of Sierra Leone soldiers that allied itself with the rebel Revolutionary United Front in the late 1990s. While the AFRC briefly controlled the country in 1998, it was driven from the cap ...

in 1979.

Politics

During the second republic of Ghana, Afreh served as Deputy General Secretary of the Justice Party.

Death

Kwame Afreh died at the

Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) is a public teaching hospital located in the Ablekuma South Metropolitan District in Accra, Ghana. It is the only public tertiary hospital in the southern part of the country. It is a teaching hospital affiliate ...

following an illness. He was buried in his hometown of

Barekese Barekese is a town and capital of the Atwima Nwabiagya District within Ashanti Region, Ghana. It is home to the Barekese Dam and Barekese Senior High School Barekese Senior High School (Basec'') is a coeducational high school in Barekese in t ...

in the

Ashanti Region The Ashanti Region is located in southern part of Ghana and it is the third largest of 16 administrative regions, occupying a total land surface of or 10.2 percent of the total land area of Ghana. In terms of population, however, it is the mo ...

of Ghana.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afreh, Dixon Kwame 1933 births 2004 deaths 20th-century Ghanaian lawyers Alumni of Achimota School Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana Alumni of the University of Birmingham Members of Lincoln's Inn People associated with the University of London