The Speaker of Parliament, Alban Sumana Kingsford Bagbin, has called for partnership with public institutions operating in the legal sector to build integrated and automated digital projects for laws, judgments and gazettes.
He said a joint effort among Parliament, the Judiciary, legal professionals, academics and civil society, and best practices of other parts of Africa would help make the country’s laws accessible to every citizen.
“We must have a clear and achievable roadmap, a commitment to our citizens that by 2027, every Ghanaian will have access to all laws, judgments and gazettes at their fingertips,” Mr Bagbin said.
This was contained in a speech read on his behalf by the First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, at a two-day workshop on sustainable public access to law in Ghana in Accra yesterday.
It was on the theme: “Sustainable public access to law in Ghana,” and was attended by legal experts from Parliament, the Judicial Service, the Ghana Bar Association, and across Africa.
The participants deliberated on how to foster open, timely and reliable access to legal information as part of efforts to strengthen democracy, transparency and justice in the country.
It was organised by Ghana Legal Information, a non-profit Institute, in collaboration with the GIZ.
Accessibility
The Speaker further said that “transparency and accessible laws strengthen our courts, help our businesses to thrive and build trust between the people and their government, and that is why I personally commit to supporting Parliament’s leadership role in this journey and encourage all institutions to do same”.
“We must map a clear, practical workflow so laws flow seamlessly from our drafting desks, through official gazetting, to the phones and computers of ordinary citizens and agree on a sustainable funding model while strengthening capacity within our public institutions to ensure that this vision lasts far beyond our tenure in office,” he said.
The Speaker said democracy rested on a fundamental promise that every citizen had the right not only to know the law but also to easily access it.
He said whether it was a small business owner in Tamale trying to understand tax obligations, a student in Kumasi studying the constitution or a farmer in the Volta Region seeking clarity on land laws, they should not face barriers.
Mr Bagbin said Parliament itself had embraced digital transformation, from e-petitions that connected citizens directly with legislators to the digitisation of its historic Hansards, making it possible for every citizen to explore how past Parliaments worked.
Zero score
The Director of AfricanLII at the University of Cape Town, South Africa, Mariya Badeva, said 18 months ago, Ghana scored zero on the Open African Law Index, reflecting the absence of free public access to core legal materials.
The index, she said, measured the government’s provision of legislation, case law and other legal information online, assessing whether access was authoritative, up to date and freely available to all without paywalls or restrictive licensing.
“It reflects the foundational role that access to legal information plays in governance, economic resilience and public service delivery,” she said.
However, she acknowledged that Ghana had made remarkable strides since then.
Through collaboration with the Judicial Service of Ghana, judgments are now being published online and made accessible to the public for the first time.
