A Speech by Mrs. Sheila Minkah-Premo delivered at the GELC Convening on July 5, 2024.
The Chief Justice of the Republic of Ghana, Justices of the Superior Courts, Justices of the Lower Courts, Professor of Laws who are present with us here, development partners, colleague lawyers from the Ghana Bar Association, colleagues from the Ghana Bar Association Women's Forum, colleagues from the Institutes for African Women in Law, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, good morning to you all. You're welcome to this very important event that the Ghana Bar Association Women's Forum is collaborating with its partner, the Institute for African Women in Law, to launch the Gender Equality in Law Campaign that the Institute has been working on for a very long time and is being launched in Ghana. We are pleased to collaborate with them on this very important project which is very dear to our hearts, that is, the heart of the GBA Women's Forum.
The GBA Women's Forum was set up and recognized in the amended constitution of the Ghana Bar Association of 2022 due to their realization that there was no association looking out for the interests of women lawyers in Ghana. As the president of the GBA Women's Forum, I represent women lawyers at the GBA Council. We started pushing for the setting up of this forum as far back as 2014 when we started mobilizing women lawyers to come together to think of their welfare during annual bar conferences.
We do recognize that women lawyers in Ghana since the 1970s have set up organizations to use their skills to help in providing free legal services for indigent women and children in Ghana, as well as undertaking advocacy to push for laws of interest to women in Ghana. Groups like the Ghana branch of the International Federation of Women Lawyers for Ghana, African Women Lawyers Association, among others, were set up for this purpose and they have done outstanding work providing services for countless women and children and pushing for the passage of very, very important laws that have improved the rights of women in Ghana. And they must be applauded for the work that they have done to date.
The GBA Women's Forum's main interest is in advocating for the rights of women lawyers in Ghana. From the time of the Gold Coast, when Africans were allowed to become lawyers as far back as 1887, it was only in 1945 that we had the first woman lawyer in the person of Mrs. Essi Foster. Since then, the number of women lawyers has increased, but they are still less than their male counterparts.
Also, when it comes to leadership at the bar, there has been no female president of the bar and only one female vice president in the person of Mrs. Felicia Besemeti. A few women have been presidents of the Greater Accra Bar and we must commend them for that achievement as well. And I have recently found out that quite a number of women are regional vice presidents, but the key is that this does not qualify them to be members of the GBA Council.
Only presidents and secretaries are members of the GBA Council, so I think our men are very strategic. In many organizations, people don't want to be secretaries. At the GBA, men want to be secretaries because they know it will take them to the council.
So please, women, let's advise ourselves. Our main interest, as I've already indicated, is in seeing that there should be change. We want to see more women lawyers in key leadership positions at the bar.
Women lawyers need to be in leadership at the bar, and we've been encouraging them to do so. There are many factors that stop women from progressing in the profession, particularly with regard to leadership in this very important organization. Furthermore, information available based on reports received and matters referred to us from time to time shows that women do suffer discrimination within their profession, including sexual harassment in the workplace, pregnancy-related discrimination, a few of such matters have been referred to us to handle, unequal pay, inequitable hiring and promotion, as well as gender bias and stereotypes, among others.
The collaboration with the Institute of African Women in Law is therefore very important since they have undertaken research in many other African countries on issues relating to women lawyers and have developed policies and strategies that have improved the circumstances of women at the bar in some of these African countries. It is time Ghana benefits from this depth of knowledge that they have, knowledge and experience.
So we call on law firms in Ghana and the Ghana Bar Association to provide mechanisms to address some of the issues I mentioned, sexual harassment and all the other forms of discrimination that women suffer at the bar. And this, we believe, can be done by adopting the model gender equality policy that the Institute of African Women in Law will be unveiling today to us.
I believe that we should consider adopting it for the profession in Ghana and we would also entreat law firms in Ghana to adopt and implement this policy which will be outdoored today. Working with the Institute of African Women in Law and our male allies will create a gender-inclusive profession in Ghana that can be an example for other countries in Africa and the world to emulate.
Distinguished guests, thanks once again to the Institute of African Women in Law for partnering with us on this very important project. We hope that the fortunes of women at the bar in Ghana will greatly improve from this collaboration. Once again, you're all welcome to this very important program and I hope that you will enjoy every aspect of it.
Thank you very much.