Ghana University Legal Clinic Project

The KNUST Faculty of Law, CLA, and the University of Ottawa have partnered to help establish a university legal clinic at the KNUST Faculty of Law in Kumasi, Ghana. This clinic, to be staffed by KNUST students overseen by KNUST professors, will provide free legal services and representation to poor and marginalized people in the local community.

The KNUST Legal Clinic will have a major impact in Ghana in a number of ways. First, this clinic will provide important assistance to people in the community who have little income and would normally not be able to access legal assistance. Second, by providing practical training for students, the clinic will help meet KNUST’s goal of producing graduates who not only know the theory of the law but are also able to put to practice what they have learned. It will also supplement the efforts of the overburdened Ghana Legal Aid Board, and, by working with traditional authorities, it will promote alternative dispute resolution. In the long-term, by promoting the rule of law and protecting human rights, this project will help reduce poverty and promote economic development in Ghana.

As part of the first phase of the project, Canadian Lawyers Abroad Executive Director, Catherine McKenna visited KNUST and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by the parties. Bell Canada also donated a law library of over 2000 legal texts through CLA to the KNUST Faculty of Law.

As part of the second phase of the project, Ebenezer Bediako, a teaching assistant at KNUST and a recent graduate, is spending the summer working at the University of Ottawa Community Legal Clinic to gain valuable experience. A committee has also been established at KNUST to help develop the KNUST clinical curriculum and clinic policies and procedures.

Ebenezer Bediako, second from the left, pictured with John Mather, Kaley Pulfer and Sarah Emery from Blakes, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

The third phase of the project will start in September 2011 when the first legal clinic course will be offered to KNUST law students. The clinic will open to the community in January 2012.

The KNUST law library where the clinic will be located (downstairs).

Blakes, Cassels & Graydon LLP is the Pro Bono Sponsor of this project and is providing financial assistance and pro bono legal advice.