Rights in Action: Trends, Challenges & Lessons

His Lordship, Mr. Anthony Kwadwo Yeboah (April 1957 – October 2019) was a justice of the Court of Appeal of Ghana. He served as a judge at the Human Rights Division of the Accra High Court for years before he was appointed to the Court of Appeal. He published two books, The Alchemy of Social Justice: Directive Principles of Social Justice (2011); and Rights in Action: Trends, Challenges & Lessons (2012). He has other published scholarly works in the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Law Journal: When Statutory ‘Shall’ may mean ‘May’; and Partnership Unbound: Reform of the Partnership Law in Ghana.

He graduated from the KNUST with Bachelor of Arts (Honors) degree in Social Sciences, after which he was appointed as a teaching assistant in the Department of Languages. At the Ghana School of Law, Accra, he qualified as a Barrister-at-Law in 1995, and in addition he was awarded Mmieh and E. S. Aidoo Prizes for overall best student in Conveyancing and Drafting.

As a solicitor and advocate at the Superior Court of Judicature, Ghana, he taught Business Law at the then University College of Education of Winneba, Kumasi campus; and engaged in private legal practice from Dadson & Associates, Hayfron-Benjamin & Co., and George Sarpong Legal Services, Kumasi. He joined the Bench as a High Court judge in 2009, and in 2018, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal. He was passionate about upholding human rights, gender equality and social justice. In one of his landmark cases, The Commissioner, CHRAJ & 2 Ors v. Ghana National Fire Service & Attorney General, he ruled in favour of two female firefighters who were dismissed from their jobs for being pregnant and ordered that should be reinstated. He described the action the Ghana National Fire Service as discriminatory.

He was a multilingual, an artist and a poet. He loved reading, playing the game of chess, and listening to jazz. He was married with five children. He died on the morn of Friday, October 4, 2019, the same day newly qualified Barristers-at-law were being inducted into the Ghanaian legal profession.