National Association of Women Judges Partnership

NAWJ hosts dinner in honor of five Ghanaian women judges participating in the Virtue Foundation Institute for Innovation and Philanthropy in Ghana’s Jurist in Residence Program.

On Friday, April 15, 2011, the National Association of Women Judges (NAWJ) hosted a dinner event in honor of the five Ghanaian women judges participating in the Virtue Foundation Institute for Innovation and Philanthropy in Ghana’s Jurist in Residence Program. Approximately 30 women judges from the New York City area attended the event.

The five women judges from Ghana—Circuit Court Judges Patience Mills-Tetteh and Barbara Naadja Tetteh-Charway, and Magistrate Judges Patricia Ekua Quansah, Audrey Edem Ama Kocuvie-Tay, and Abena Oppong Adjin-Doku—were selected by Virtue Foundation in collaboration with the Chief Justice of Ghana, Her Ladyship Georgina T. Wood, and the Leitner Center for International Law and Justice at Fordham Law School, to participate in the five-week Program.

As part of Virtue Foundation’s Women Judges in the Pipeline Initiative, which seeks to identify obstacles and offer practical solutions to increasing women’s participation in judiciaries throughout the world, the Virtue Foundation Institute for Innovation and Philanthropy in Ghana, in collaboration with the Leitner Center and the Office of Court Administration of New York, implemented this intensive training and shadowing program. The Program provided these judges a unique opportunity to access the resources of a world-class research facility and to participate in judicial training sessions with U.S. colleagues to gain invaluable knowledge and skills. Training topics included: legal research and writing, case management, fair trial rights, ethical issues, gender and the judiciary, and issues of vulnerable groups in the courts. In addition, the judges received training on the theory and practical implementation of problem-solving courts. Judges also spent a week shadowing U.S. judge counterparts who are working in problem-solving courts. The goal was to adequately prepare participants to plan and implement an innovative model Family Justice Center in Ghana.