Daniel Owusu Koranteng, President of the Ghana National Association of ADR Practitioners (GNAAP), has made an urgent call on the government to resource courts to utilise Alternative Conflict Resolution (ADR) to cure the heavy caseloads in court and instant justice for persons who deem court processes as being cumbersome.
He asserted that ADR holds the key to making Ghana’s courts more efficient by reducing adjudication times and, consequently, the costs associated with court litigation.
Ghana is facing a growing challenge with its justice system, struggling to keep pace with an escalating number of disputes, which risks pushing citizens towards unlawful means of seeking redress.
This was the central message delivered by Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, President of the Ghana National Association of ADR Practitioners (GNAAP), at the association’s 12th Annual General Conference on June 21, 2025.
The conference theme, “Resolving Conflicts in a Changing World: The Option of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR),” emphasises the increasing complexity of conflicts in Ghana.
Owusu-Koranteng mentioned various factors contributing to this surge, including economic, social, religious, marital, and family disputes, political tensions, pervasive land grabbing, and the devastating impact of mining activities.
These issues, he noted, are significantly worsening the already heavy caseload on Ghana’s courts.
“When a nation is saddled with the problems of a justice system that is unable to respond quickly to the urgent demands for quick resolution of conflicts, citizens are compelled to take the law into their hands and adopt unlawful and illegal methods to seek redress,” Owusu-Koranteng stated.
He warned that Ghana is “gradually drifting into a situation where instant justice, revenge and the use of gangsters for the protection of properties like land have become the norm.”
He attributed this alarming trend to a systemic issue: the overwhelming workload faced by the nation’s dedicated judges.
Owusu-Koranteng emphasised that the speedy resolution of conflicts is a crucial measure of a judicial system’s efficiency.
Read full speech below
SPEECH BY DANIEL OWUSU-KORANTENG, PRESIDENT OF THE GHANA NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF ADR PRACTITIONERS (GNAAP) DELIVERED AT THE 12TH ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE OF GNAAAP ON 21ST JUNE, 2025
Mr Alex Nartey(Esq) Patron of GNAAP and Chairman of the 12th Annual General Conference of GNAAP;
Our Special Guest of Honour -Hon. Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, the Attorney-General of the Republic of Ghana.
The Resource Person for the 12th Annual General Conference of GNAAP, Her Ladyship Dorinda Smith Arthur, Justice of the High Court;
Members of the Board of Directors of GNAAP;
Our Media friends;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
The theme for the 12th Annual General Conference (AGM) of GNAAP “Resolving Conflicts in a Changing World: The option of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)”, reflects the increasing complexities in our conflict dynamics fueled by economic, social, religious, marital, family disputes, political factors, land grabbing and the devastating effects of mining among others that are worsening the already existing conflict load in our courts.
When a nation is saddled with the problems of a justice system that is unable to respond quickly to the urgent demands for quick resolution of conflicts, citizens are compelled to take the law into their own hands and adopt unlawful and illegal methods to seek redress.
Our country is gradually drifting into a situation where instant justice, revenge, and the use of gangsters for the protection of properties like land have become the norm.
These are signs that our judicial system is not responding to the urgent needs of citizens, and the problem can be diagnosed as a systemic problem propelled by the overload of work for our honorable justices of the courts, who are doing their best to address the problems even at the expense of their health.
Speedy resolution of conflicts is an important measure of the efficiency of our Judicial system, and the fact that ADR holds the key to making our courts efficient through reduction of the adjudication time for Conflict resolution, which translates into the reduction of the cost associated with Court litigation, is not an issue of contest.
Attorney General and Hon. Minister of Justice Dominic Akuritinga Ayine, Her Ladyship Dorinda Smith Arthur, Ladies and gentlemen, whilst litigation escalates conflicts, ADR improves access to justice and contributes to peacebuilding among parties in a conflict.
Undoubtedly, ADR is an essential tool for ensuring access to justice, decongesting courts as well as providing increased access, faster resolution of cases, and cost effectiveness.
The important role of ADR in our justice system is not commensurate with the government’s investment to improve court infrastructure, such as provision of offices, well-furnished conference facilities for Mediation Sessions, training of ADR Practitioners, adequate remuneration for Court-Connected ADR Practitioners, among others.
It has become very necessary for the government to make ADR Practice rewarding to improve the productivity of ADR Practitioners. Financial incentives, professional recognition, training, and development can motivate ADR Practitioners to achieve higher productivity and improve the effectiveness of ADR processes.
With the increasing importance of ADR in our Judicial system, ADR Practitioners are bound to face some challenges that require strict adherence to the ethics of the profession, such as impartiality, confidentiality, Informed Consent, Cultural sensitivity, among others.
As ADR Practitioners, we should do everything possible to make ethical issues the foundation of our ADR Professional practice. We all need to be reminded that our ADR Practice provides us with privileged access to personal information of parties that appear before us and if we fail to make ethical standards the foundation of our ADR Practice, our unethical behaviours would undermine the effectiveness of our profession and we would lose the treasured public trust in the growing importance of ADR.
As members of the only ADR Professional body in Ghana, members of GNAAP have the responsibility to act in ways that would make the practice of ADR attractive to the people of our country.
The GNAAP Board is working hard to ensure that members of GNAAP adhere to the association’s code of conduct.
The Board of GNAAP is prepared to collaborate with the Judicial Service and other related government agencies to discuss some of the problems facing ADR Practice in Ghana.
As ADR Practitioners, we should possess the golden qualities of patience, understanding, and cultural competence, which entail understanding and respect for cultural differences, impartiality, integrity, emotional intelligence, and active listening, among others.
Additionally, we should possess qualities of effective communication and cultural competence to facilitate effective dispute resolution, build trust, and promote positive outcomes.
The ADR Profession is a noble calling to be agents of peace who have been trained and professionally equipped through our professional training institute, IPLS, to be able to turn “ Swords into Ploughshares”.
It is our duty to act with very high professionalism to the extent that no government can afford to take ADR Practitioners for granted. GNAAP is committed to continuous advocacy work to ensure that ADR Practitioners are recognized as a very important part of Ghana’s Judicial System and provided the needed facilities and support for professional ADR practice.
We hope that our genuine plea to the government will be given urgent attention so that when we converge for another AGM of GNAAP in 2026, our speech will be full of gratitude to the government and the Judicial Service for responding positively to the demands we have made.
I wish to congratulate the new members of GNAAP for making a huge sacrifice in terms of time and financial resources to go through the Professional ADR Course at IPLS, which is the ADR Training Institute accredited by GNAAP to train ADR Practitioners for GNAAP. An important maxim of Conflict is that conflict exists wherever there is human interaction, which means that as ADR Practitioners, your services would be required wherever there is human interaction. We have no doubts that IPLS has prepared the newly inducted members of GNAAP to recognize that being a member of GNAAP is a calling to serve humanity in the area of conflict resolution and peacebuilding.
We are grateful to the important personalities and the media who have graced our 2025 AGM with their presence.
I wish you a very fruitful deliberation.
LONG LIVE ADR
LONG LIVE GNAAP
LONG LIVE GHANA
May God Bless us
NAD/VPO
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