Sophia Akuffo

Sophia Akuffo served as Ghana's 13th Chief Justice from 19 June 2017 until she retired on her 70th birthday, 20 December 2019. Before that she helped set up the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights as one of its founding judges, and went on to lead it.

Education

Sophia Abena Boafoa Akuffo was born at Akropong-Akuapem on 20 December 1949, the daughter of a Presbyterian minister. She went to Parliament Hill School in London and Wesley Girls' High School, read law at the University of Ghana and was called to the Bar from the Ghana School of Law in 1975. She did her pupillage under Nana Akufo-Addo, and also holds a master's in law from Harvard. John Atta Mills taught her tax law at the law school.

On the bench

After about 20 years in private practice, President Rawlings appointed her to the Supreme Court in November 1995. In January 2006 she was elected to the new African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights with President Kufuor's backing, and she stayed until 2014, serving as vice-president and then president. She also helped govern the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and chaired Ghana's alternative dispute resolution task force. Akufo-Addo nominated her as Chief Justice on 11 May 2017. Her last judgment, on 18 December 2019, was a unanimous ruling that courts may sit at weekends and on public holidays for urgent cases.