Eunice
Deladem Ohenewaa Mensah

Eunice Deladem Ohenewaa Mensah is a PhD candidate at Nottingham Law School, where she is being supervised by Professor Jonathan Doak, Professor Loretta Trickett and Dr Sophie Gallop. Her academic background includes an LLM degree in Health Law and ethics from Nottingham Trent University, as well as an LLB degree from Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana.

"My research is on the topic ‘Traditions and Restorative Justice: In pursuit of a Dynamic Restorative Criminal Justice System in Ghana’. It focuses on exploring how pre-colonial and indigenous understandings of Justice might serve as a conduit for implementing RJ within the Ghanaian criminal justice system. Through socio-legal analysis, I intend to evaluate the extent to which traditional justice systems which are mainly focused on the principles of reformation, accountability and restoration can provide a valuable framework for addressing crimes within contemporary Ghanaian communities. Ultimately, I hope to be able to show that there is the possibility of creating a normative approach that will enable a shift from the current adversarial justice practices with traces of colonial legacies to develop a dynamic Restorative Justice mechanism built on Ghana’s pre-colonial traditional justice systems.

I have always had a passion for projects that assist incarcerated persons, especially women and juveniles.  I have remained an ardent critic that the Ghana judicial system and penal code do not foster offenders’ rehabilitation and reformation, nor does it create an avenue for victims to receive help and support for the ordeal they go through. This inspired my choice of topic for my LLM dissertation which gave me the opportunity to explore how Ghana has tried to achieve the UN Mandela rules and made recommendations on possible means of meeting the obligations stated in the UN rules and other international commitments towards prisoners. Restorative Justice was one of my key recommendations as a solution to decongesting prisons, reducing recidivism and achieving other obligations Ghana had towards its people. It is this same desire that has inspired my choice of research topic and interest.

I am currently only 2 months into my PhD, and I am happy that things are progressing as planned. I look forward to the opportunities to work with experts in the field and an avenue to learn from the best. I am optimistic that this project will position me as an expert on cutting-edge research in Law and socio-legal studies. I plan to qualify as a Barrister here in the UK and will continue to develop and disseminate my research to both academic and professional audiences."

Contact details:

Email

LinkedIn

Twitter

ORCID: 0009-0000-5972-6840