By: Rachel Kakraba
A book “In the eye of the storm” which is an auto biography of the first Commissioner for the Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice, CHRAJ, Justice Emile Francis Kwamena Short has been launched in Accra.
The 250 page book, details accounts of his experiences growing up, education, love life and professional development as well as some selected cases in Ghana and abroad he has adjudicated.
The book also gives candid and authentic account of the eminent lawyer’s life and work. It provides a vivid narrative of the development and growth of CHRAJ in the early days and how the concept has become part of Ghana’s administrative and judicial canon.
Speaking at the event, a Justice of the Supreme Court Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, touted contribution of Justice Emile Short to transforming CHRAJ where the less privileged always got redress for injustices perpetrated against them. She said he should be celebrated for his contribution to development of the country.
Prof. Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu, while commending Justice Short for the initiative said it is important for people to tell their own story. This she said, would ensure they are well remembered for what they always stood for.
“It is important that you tell your own story, whatever else people will read about you, your story will shine and will perhaps create the balance so that you will be remembered properly and you will be remembered as you wish. So it is a matter of great delight that Justice Emile Short has chosen to tell his own story”
Dean UPSA Law School, Prof. Kofi Abotsi who reviewed the book said Justice Short qualities of honesty and integrity is one that challenges legal practitioners to be good at what they do and still make it to heaven.
He said Justice Short contribution to especially championing human rights of citizens is one that Ghana will forever be indebted to him. He said memoir writing presents an opportunity for self introspection.
“Justice Short looked large in the life of CHRAJ and for this, Ghana should be indebted to him. The persistence of Trokosi was a reality Justice Short found deeply troubling and unattainable. For he begins the chapter on Trokosi with a quote on the marching orders given in the Bible in Psalms.”
Justice Emile Short was born on February 6, 1943, in Cape Coast, Gold Coast to Joseph Short, a Sierra Leonean lawyer and Wilhelmina Short. He was called to the English Bar of Lincoln’s Inn in 1966, to Sierra Leone Bar in 1968 and to the Ghana Bar in 1974. He taught law at Henson College of Technology, London from 1967 to 1968. He also taught law at the University of Cape Coast.
Justice Emile Short was appointed in 1993 as Ghana’s first Commissioner for the newly established Commission on Human Rights and Administrative Justice.
In 2004 the United Nations Assembly elected him to sit with other judges at the International Criminal Tribunal on Rwandan genocide. Justice Emile Short, said the launch was to coincide with his 80th Birthday and 30th anniversary of CHRAJ.
He was grateful to God for his protection over his life and thanked persons whose contribution has seen the successful launch of the book.
“By the grace of God I have attained the age of 80, this is a blessing and I need to give thanks to God for bringing me this far. I just want to say a few things about the age 80 . It is acclaimed to be a milestone because it is a big leap from one age to another, though it might just be one year”
Justice Emile Short has special interest in Tennis, and has represented Ghana in international competitions. The first copies of the book was auctioned at 10,000 Cedis.
