Women Chief Justices

Georgina Wood was the first woman Chief Justice of Ghana, appointed in 2007. Georgina Wood was born in 1947 in Ghana. She received her undergraduate degree from the University of Ghana, Legon in 1970, before going to law school at Ghana School of Law and graduating in 1972.

For her first professional role, Georgina Wood served as a Public Prosecutor and Deputy Superintendent in the Police Service for three years after she had trained with the Ghana Police Service in a post-graduate officers training course. Following this position, she was appointed as a Magistrate of the District Court in 1974. This role initiated her ascent in the judicial sector until she eventually reached the Supreme Court in Ghana. She was nominated as a candidate for Chief Justice in Ghana by the President in 2002 but declined the nomination for unknown reasons. By 2003, she was appointed as a justice of the Supreme Court of The Gambia.

For additional training, Georgina Wood became an advocate of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR), received training in the US, and attended a learning program in the World Bank. Additionally, she assisted in the design of a court-connected Ghanaian ADR program and served as the Chairperson for the committee to draft manuals for the trials of ADR in the Commercial Court of Ghana.

In 2007, Lady Justice Wood received the Order of the Star of Ghana, Ghana’s highest National Award, for her public service in addition to receiving an honorary degree (LLD) from the University of Ghana in 2008. She left the Supreme Court of The Gambia in 2007 once she was appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Ghana, and served in that position until her retirement in 2017.

Aloysie Cyanzayire served as the first woman Chief Justice of Rwanda from 2004 to 2014. Cyanzayire was born in the Southern Province of Rwanda. She then obtained a scientific background by attending one of the first science schools created solely for girls. She used that knowledge and drive to then reach a bachelors in law degree at the National University of Rwanda.

During the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Cyanzayire served as a judge of Butare. Following the genocide, she became the Secretary General for the Ministry of Justice and concurrently operated as an advisor for the Office Rwandais d’Information. She was elected as the head for the local-level system for the post-genocide reconciliation courts by the Parliament. Cyanzayire then served as one of six vice presidents of the Supreme Court. She became the deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court as her next position. Cyanzayire was elected the President of the Supreme Court of Rwanda by the Senate in 2003. Since her election, the title of the position has been altered to be Chief Justice, as Rwanda has updated their legal system.

In 2011, she reached the eight-year limit for the Supreme Court and left the court in favor of becoming the Chief Ombudsperson for Rwanda. The Chief Ombudsperson is responsible for investigate complaints against public authorities in the Rwandan government.

Mabel Agyemang has had an illustrious career in the judiciary within three Commonwealth jurisdictions working as a superior court judge. Mabel Agyemang received her undergraduate degree at the University of Ghana and attended Ghana School of Law. Immediately following her graduation, Agyemang was called to the Ghanaian bar in 1987. She entered private legal practice from 1987 until 1991, when she joined the judiciary of Ghana, where she worked in the judicial circuit serving in many different jurisdictions during her tenure. In 1996, Agyemang became the Vice President of the Association of Magistrates and Judges of Ghana, which she continued to serve until 2000. It was in 2002 that Agyemang was elevated to the High Court in Ghana. She left her position in the Ghanaian court system to work for the Commonwealth Secretariat. The Commonwealth Secretariat is an association of 54 different countries originally rooted in the British Empire. Its mission is to support mission countries to enable collaboration for global challenges including those of civil and criminal justice reform. It is in this area of the Commonwealth, that Agyemang worked as an expert to the judiciaries of The Gambia and Swaziland as a High Court Judge from 2004 until 2014. In 2013, Agyemang was appointed to become the first woman Chief Justice of The Gambia though she was only able to fill the position for a year until 2014. In 2014, she left The Gambia after the President of The Gambia unlawfully terminated her services as Agyemang was attempting to reform the judicial system. She returned to her native Ghana after this removal and was sworn in as a Justice of the Ghana Court of Appeals until 2020. She was appointed by the Governor of the Turks and Caicos Islands to become the Chief Justice and has recently accepted the position. As of April 2020, Agyemang became the Chief Justice of the Turks of Caicos Islands, a position to which she is bringing her years of experience in the judicial field.

Nemat Abdullah Khair is the Chief Justice for the Supreme Court of Sudan who serves as the head of the Sudanese judiciary. She is the first woman to serve as the Chief Justice for Sudan. She is originally from the state of Gezira in Sudan and was born in 1957. For her education, Khair went to Cairo University to receive a Bachelors in Law. Following her graduation, she became a member of the Sudanese judiciary in the 1980s. She worked in the Court of Appeals and the Court of First Instance in Sudan before joining the Supreme Court. She is also the founder of the Sudanese Judges Club. Khair was confirmed as the Chief Justice of Sudan in October 2019 after being selected by the Transitional Military Council and the Forces of Freedom and Change alliance.