Ghana’s Dennis Adjei sworn-in as Judge of African Court

Justice of Ghana’s Court of Appeal, Justice Sir Dennis Dominic Adjei has been sworn in as Judge of the African Court of Human and People’s Rights in Arusha Tanzania for a 6-year term.

His special swearing-in ceremony took place at the 66th Ordinary Session of the Court at Arusha in Tanzania.

The event also saw a judge, Justice Ntyam Ondo Mengue from Cameroon being congratulated on her re-election.

Justice Adjei who was elected by the Executive Council of the AU during its 41st Summit held in Lusaka, Zambia in July 2022, will occupy the 11th seat of the court, replacing a Rwandan, Justice Marie Therese Mukamulisa, who occupied the seat prior to it being declared vacant in May 2022 by the African Union.

The African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights is the judicial arm of the African Union and one of the three regional human rights courts together with the European Court of Human Rights and the Inter-American Court of Human rights. It was established to protect the human and peoples’ rights in Africa principally through the delivery of judgments. The Court has its permanent seat in Arusha, the United Republic of Tanzania.

The court is composed of eleven judges nominated by member states of the AU and elected by the latter’s Assembly of Heads of State and Government. Judges serve six-year terms and may only be re-elected once. The President of the court resides and works full-time in Arusha, whilst the other ten judges work on a part-time basis. Registry, managerial, and administrative functions are executed by a registrar.

Election of Justice Sir Dennis Adjei

After the seat was declared vacant, a male and female were selected by the AU from each of the African blocs, after which five persons including a Ghanaian Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei, and other four others from Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Rwanda were shortlisted.

Afterwards, the five candidates were voted upon on three consecutive rounds of the process, and two of them; Justice Dennis Adjei from Ghana and Pedro Sinai Nhatitima from Mozambique were further shortlisted.

Also, the two shortlisted candidates were voted upon in like manner by the Union after which Justice Dennis Adjei emerged atop of the two and per the rules, was subsequently subjected to voting by the entire 51 of the eligible union members out of which he attained 41 votes of the 45 members who took part in the election.

Justice Dennis Dominic Adjei’s election comes years after the first Ghanaian former Chief Justice, Sophia Akuffo, rose from being a member to becoming the court President a few years ago.