Gertrude Araba Esabaa Torkornoo, a candidate for chief justice, claims that she is on the legal side of LGBTQ+ issues.
Parliament is currently debating the Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill.
The Bill, which many people view as being anti-LGBTQ+, aims to make homosexuality and related behaviors illegal.
The next Chief Justice of Ghana responded, “I think I have made it clear that when I walk into the court, all my thoughts are soaked in the law,” when asked about her position on LGBTQ+ during her appearance before the Appointments Committee of Parliament on Friday, May 26.
If she is confirmed, Justice Gertrude Torkornoo, who is from Winneba in the Central Region, will join Justices Sophia Akuffo and Georgina Theodora Wood as the only two female chief justices in Ghana’s history.
She will succeed Justice Kwasi Anin Yeboah, who resigned as Chief Justice on May 24, 2023, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 for justices of the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court is a neutral court, and we uphold the rule of law.
Justice Torkornoo took advantage of the chance to address a number of matters of public interest while she was being vetted.
She disputed arguments, for instance, that the Supreme Court is biased when rendering decisions in political cases.
According to Justice Torkornoo, the fact that the Supreme Court reached a unanimous decision proves that it was made impartially and based solely on the law.
“Whenever you come across a unanimous decision, it tells you that the law is completely on the side of the position taken by the court and that each member of the court cannot take a different position while remaining true to their judicial oath.
It tells you that, that is what the law is. The only course of action is to take what the law says into account; this is not a matter of bias but rather of the law’s position”.
