Board
of Directors
The Gender Centre has a five member board of directors. these are:
Prof. Akua Kuenyehia currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Ghana. She has taught Contracts Law, International Law, Labour Law, Criminal Law, Health Law, Police Administration, Gender and the Law, and International Human Rights Law.
Prof. Kuenyehia has served as a Visiting Associate Professor and Research Fellow for Temple University’s School of Law, and Exchange Facilitator between Northwestern University and the University of Ghana, a Visiting Scholar to the Department of Constitutional Law at the State University of Leiden in the Netherlands, a Consulting Senior Lecturer for the Faculty of Law at Imo State University in Okigwe, Nigeria, a Lecturer for Ghana Workers College and Company Secretary and Legal Advisor, UAC of Ghana Ltd.
Prof. Kuenyehia is a member of the Ghana Bar Association, International Bar Association, The African Society of International and Comparative Law, Ghana Association of Consultants, Women in Law and Development (WiLDAF), Society for International Development (SID) in Ghana and a Member of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA). She is also a Co-Founder of the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (Gender Centre).
Prof. Kuenyehia will be serving in her personal capacity as an Expert Member for the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), commencing in 2003.
Professor Abena D. Busia-Sackey, Professor of English, Rutgers University, New Jersey
Emelia Adjepong
Currently a Legal Consultant on Gender Issues and Human Rights, Emelia received training as a lawyer from the Ghana Law School and University of Ghana. She was called to the bar in 1965. Her distinguished career includes teaching with Adult Education programmes and working as a Solicitor for the Volta River Authority. She initiated the FIDA Legal Aid Programme and has worked with the programme as a volunteer and Administrator. She has presented a number of papers on the legal rights of women and children in Ghana. Along with two other colleagues, she has simplified and translated Ghanaian laws on succession, marriage and divorce. She is currently doing a programme on “You and Your Legal Problems” on Peace FM Radio in Accra. She is involved with a number of NGOs outside of the Gender Centre. She is an Executive Member of FIDA, a member of WiLDAF and a member of the General Legal Council Disciplinary Committee.
Joana Foster
Ms. Foster was educated in Ghana and the United Kingdom and is qualified to practice as a lawyer in both countries. A social activist for over 30 years, Joana Foster has worked most of her adult life in the United Kingdom as a law lecturer in various colleges and a practising lawyer specialising in immigration law, divorce, welfare rights (housing and labour rights). As a lecturer, she was significantly involved in writing curricula for Black and Women studies. In her spare time, Ms. Foster gave free legal advice to clients in various womens’ and ethnic centres. Over the last 10 years, she has been working in Africa first as a Country Director for CUSO in Ghana, then as a Regional Coordinator for Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) and was based in the headquarters in Zimbabwe. She is a Founder of the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre in Accra, Ghana and also the Initiator of the newly established African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF) – the first Africa-wide Fund for women in Africa. Ms. Foster has published various articles on women's human rights with specific emphasis on women’s economic rights. She was also a member of the first expert panel to draft the Protocol on Women’s Rights to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. She was a Board Member for the African Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Studies; she was also a Board Member for The African Development Education Network and is currently a Board Member for MATCH International Centre.
Dorcas Coker-Appiah, Executive Director
Is a lawyer and a women’s rights activist for over twenty years. She is the Executive-Director of the Gender Studies and Human Rights Documentation Centre (Gender Centre) in Accra, Ghana and one of its Founders.
As well, Ms. Coker-Appiah is one of the founding members of International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Ghana. She has been an active participant in all of the organization’s activities since its inception in 1974 – having served as Vice-President and President. Ms. Coker-Appiah also served as Chairperson of the Legal Aid Steering Committee for FIDA Ghana’s legal aid programme and as the Project Coordinator of the Legal Literacy and Publications Committee.
Ms. Coker-Appiah is a member of Women in Law and Development in Africa (WiLDAF) – a pan-African network of organizations and individuals with members in twenty-six African countries. As one of the founding members of WiLDAF Ghana, she has also been one of the key Designers of the organizations’ activities including the training of legal literacy volunteers who undertake legal education in Ghana. Ms. Coker-Appiah is currently the Chairperson of the Africa Regional Board of Directors of WiLDAF.
Ms. Coker-Appiah has served and continues to serve on a number of Boards including Ghana Legal Literacy and Resource Foundation (1994 to date) and the Executive Committee of the Christian Council of Ghana (1995-2001).