Daniel Owusu-Koranteng (M) with other executive members
The Ghana National Association of ADR Practitioners (GNAAP), has sworn in new executives to steer its affairs for the next four years.
At a brief ceremony in Accra, a retired judge, Patience Ablorh, swore into office the Association’s six-member executives with Daniel Owusu-Koranteng as the President.
Other members of the new executives include Nii Amarh Ashitey as Vice President; Dr. Mark Anderson, General Secretary; Christiana Puorideme, Deputy General Secretary; Mr. Alex Nartey, Founder; and Christopher Yaw Bekoe as Public Relations Officer.
GNAAP is a regulatory body of ADR Professionals (Mediators, Arbitrators, Negotiators, Conciliators and Customary Arbitrators).
In his acceptance speech, Mr. Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, who was elected for a second term, said GNAAP is committed to the effective functioning of democratic practice of ensuring peaceful resolution of disputes.
He said though not all cases can be resolved through the use of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) mechanism, members will work towards promoting its role and activities to the general public, especially in addressing prolonged cases which could have been solved in the shortest time.
Mr. Koranteng said the association will also train more ADR practitioners to enable them to understand and work on more complex cases that may not necessarily require the court system to address them.
The GNAAP President added that even though there are ADR centres across the country, the association would ensure that more are established.
Founder of the association, Mr. Alex Nartey, for his part said ADR has contributed significantly to the court system by reducing the backlog of cases since its introduction in Ghana’s court system in 2005.
According to him, Ghana’s court system cannot be efficient with the limited number of judges, hence the need for government to establish more innovative ADR processes to reduce the volume of cases in the courts.
Mr. Nartey, who is also a mediator, arbitrator and private legal practitioner, stated that even though cases such as interpretation of statutes, rape, defilement and cases of public interest among others cannot be settled through ADR, there are options with the use of ADR for people to resolve some pertinent issues without necessarily going to court.
The swearing-in ceremony, which was supervised by Mr. Alex Nartey, also brought together some past executives, ADR practitioners as well as lawyers.
By Ebenezer K. Amponsah