Prof Mensa-Bonsu appointed to Supreme Court bench
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has recommended law lecturer Professor Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu serve as a judge at the Supreme Court.
The Speaker of Parliament, Aaron Mike Oquaye, announced the names after Parliament received the nomination of Prof Bonsu in addition to three others.
Managing Partner of law firm Kulendi@Law, Yoni Kulendi; Justice Clemence J. Honyenuga; and Issifu Omoro Tanko Amadu are the rest of the nominations.
The nominees are to be screened by the Parliament’s Appointments Committee before a decision is made to confirm them or otherwise.
They are substitutes for Supreme Court judges who are due for retirement soon.
Professor Bonsu was part of the Emile Short Commission which probed the Ayawaso Wuogon by-election, which was characterized by violence and shooting.
She is a lecturer at the Faculty of Law of the University of Ghana and also serves as President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Prof Mensa-Bonsu is the immediate past Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD).
She has served various international bodies in different capacities, including her appointment as the Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Rule of Law (DSRSG) at the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) with the rank of Assistant-Secretary-General in 2007.
As an academic, Prof Mensa-Bonsu has researched and published extensively on Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Family Law and Children’s Rights, been a visiting Lecturer at the Queen’s University Belfast, Northwestern University School of Law, visiting Scholar at Leiden University in the Netherlands and the 2014 Diplomat-in-Residence at the School of Public and International Affairs of the North Carolina State University.
Professor Mensa-Bonsu has earned a number of academic awards and awards for meritorious service. These include the MaCallien Prize for Best Graduating Student in Volta Hall (1980); the McDougal Fellowship at Yale University (1984); the Fulbright Fellowship (1991); and the ACU/UNITWIN Fellowship for Women (1994).
Her awards for meritorious services include a Citation for Meritorious Service from the Ghana Armed Forces (2012), a Meritorious Service Award from the Akuafo Hall of the University of Ghana (2006); a Distinguished Award for Meritorious Service from the University of Ghana in 1999 and the International Association of Lions Clubs President’s Excellence Award (1998).