ACCESS TO JUSTICE SERIES BOOKS LAUNCHED (Center Spread)

01/05/2008
Story: Mary Mensah
A set of books, “Access to Justice Series”, was launched in Accra yesterday.
The idea of the series, 10 in all, was initiated in 2001 to review and reform certain laws in the country in order to ensure justice for all.
The project was sponsored by the German government through the German Technical Agency (GTZ).
The issues addressed in the books focus on Peri-Urbanisation, Land Relations and Women in Ghana, State Land Management Regime — Impact on Land Rights of Women and the Poor in Ghana, Polygyny and Plural Monogamous Marriages in Ghana, Child Maintenance in Plural Legal Systems in Ghana and Property Rights of Women in Ghana, among others.
Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, NPP Presidential candidate, under whose tenure as Attorney-General the project was initiated, said reform legislation in Ghana had often been prolific, but had in fact led to little change for the ordinary non-urban and poor citizen.
He said the Legal Pluralism Policy Forum was initiated in 2001 to discuss various issues including how to shape the Ghanaian Legal sector for the 21st century, better quality of legislation and affordable access to justice.
He cited for example that research had indicated that PNDC Law 111, the interstate succession law that was intended to bring real change to women’s ability to participate in their husbands estate, had not achieved the desired impact.
He congratulated the National House of Chiefs and the Law Reform Commission on jointly tackling the seemingly daunting task of harmonising, modernising and eventually codifying the customary law, and making it more certain and transparent, beffiting a democratic and open society.
For his part, the German Ambassador to Ghana, Dr Marius Haas, said at the fourth United Nations World Conference on Women held in Beijing in 1995, the German government committed itself to promote women in development by providing legal advisory services and social policy measures.
He said in line with this commitment, the German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-operation and Development in conjunction with GTZ as implementing agency, initiated a pilot project — “Legal Advisory Services for Women — at the interface between formal law and other legal systems in West Africa.
Dr Haas said the main focus of the pilot project was to explore the different ways in which legal and executive instrument created for the improvement of living conditions for women and the poor could have the desired impact.
He said the West African Regional Conference of 2004, which was captured in Volume nine of the series, constituted another important step in sharing experiences with 15 other African countries on the issues of legal pluralism.
The Ambassador indicated that the German government was ready to support the government of Ghana and in particular the Attorney-General in the quest to provide justice for all through various law reforms such as that Property of Spouses legal reform.
The series were launched by the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Mr Joe Ghartey.