Sophia Abena Boafoa Akuffo (born 20 December 1949) was the Chief Justice of Ghana from 2017 until 20 December 2019. Prior to that, she had already been a Judge in the Supreme Court of Ghana since 1995.

Education

The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she had her secondary education at

Wesley Girls' High School Wesley Girls' High School (WGHS) is an educational institution for girls in Cape Coast in the Central region of Ghana. It was founded in 1836 by Harriet Wrigley, the wife of a Methodist minister. The school is named after the founder of Methodism ...

, Cape Coast and obtained her Bachelor of law degree from 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 ...

. She furthered her education at the

Ghana School of Law The Ghana School of Law (GSL) is an educational institution in Ghana for training lawyers. The school is the only one that provides training for law graduates in the Barrister at Law program. The Professional Law Course is designed for Law Gradu ...

where she qualified as a barrister. Akuffo trained as a lawyer under

Nana Akuffo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. 2020 Ghanaian general election, In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 Janua ...

. She has a Master's degree in Law from Harvard University in USA.

Career

Sophia Akuffo has been a member of the Governing Committee of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, and the Chairperson of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Task Force for several years. In January 2006, she was elected as one of the first judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights: she was initially elected for two years and was subsequently re-elected until 2014 and served as Vice-President and President of the Court respectively. Akuffo wrote ''The Application of Information & Communication Technology in the Judicial Process – the Ghanaian Experience'', a presentation to the African Judicial Network Ghana (2002).

Chief Justice of Ghana

On 11 May 2017, Akuffo was nominated as the highest ranking Judge of the Supreme Court of Ghana by Nana Akuffo-Addo, subject to approval by Parliament. She was sworn in by President Akuffo-Addo on 19 June 2017 as the thirteenth Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana. The last judgment she was involved in was on 18 December 2019 when the Supreme Court passed a unanimous ruling that courts could sit at weekends and on bank holidays to deal with urgent legal cases. She also spoke of her gratitude to some former Presidents of Ghana. These included

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 ...

who was her lecturer on Taxation at the Ghana Law School and also nominated her for the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in Ethiopia. She also cited

Jerry Rawlings Jerry John Rawlings (22 June 194712 November 2020) was a Ghanaian military officer and politician who led the country for a brief period in 1979, and then from 1981 to 2001. He led a military junta until 1992, and then served two terms as the de ...

who nominated her to the Supreme Court in 1995 and

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 spe ...

who nominated her for the African Court of Human and Peoples’ Rights in 2006. She became president of this court with the support of John Mahama and was nominated by

Nana Akufo-Addo Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo ( ; born 29 March 1944) is a Ghanaian politician who has served as the president of Ghana since 7 January 2017. In 2020, he was re-elected for his second term, which will end on 6 January 2025. Akufo-Addo previously ...

as Chief Justice.

Judicial writings

* New Patriotic Party v Attorney-General (also referred to as the CIBA case) 1997 ICHRL 24 (12 March 1997)

Retirement

After serving as Chief Justice, Akuffo retired in 2019. On 28 March 2020,

appointed Akuffo to chair a newly formed COVID-19 National Trust Fund inaugurated during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. She also serves as the chairperson of the board of the University of Ghana and holds membership on several boards of directors of various organizationshttps://www.moh.gov.gh/president-akufo-addo-inaugurates-board-of-trustees-for-the-covid-19-national-trust-fundhttps://www.moh.gov.gh/president-akufo-addo-inaugurates-board-of-trustees-for-the-covid-19-national-trust-fund/

Family

She has a daughter who goes by the name Violet Padi and two grand children Samuel Osei and Cara Nyame. She has a large extended family including five living sisters but is seen to be closer to the three mentioned above.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akuffo, Sophia A. B. 20th-century Ghanaian judges Judges of the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights 1949 births Living people 21st-century Ghanaian judges 21st-century Ghanaian women politicians Ghanaian women judges Women chief justices University of Ghana alumni Harvard Law School alumni Ghanaian judges of international courts and tribunals People from Eastern Region (Ghana) Justices of the Supreme Court of Ghana People educated at Wesley Girls' Senior High School Former Presbyterians 20th-century women judges 21st-century women judges