Janapare Bartels-Kodwo

Janapare Adzua Bartels-Kodwo is a Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, sworn in at Jubilee House in July 2025. She was born in the Volta Region on 20 November 1961.

She went to Achimota School and St Monica's Secondary School and graduated from the University of Cape Coast in 1985, a year late because of university closures. She then taught at Achimota School for eight years, studying law at the same time. After qualifying she worked briefly in the legal department of the Internal Revenue Service before joining the Judicial Service as a magistrate in 1997.

She became a circuit judge in 2004, a High Court judge in 2010 and a Court of Appeal judge in December 2019. At her Supreme Court vetting she drew on a revenge porn case from her circuit court days to argue that judges must keep up with technology, proposed training for court reporters, and criticised discourtesy by some female judges towards young lawyers. She is married with three children.