The President of the Ghana National Association of ADR Practitioners (GNAAP), Mr Daniel Owusu-Koranteng, has urged Alternative Dispute Resolution graduates to be guided by truth, honesty, and professional ethics to promote peace in Ghana and the world at large.

He noted that conflict resolution was a complex human activity which required patience, impartiality and courage to ensure that justice was accessible to the people, including the poor and vulnerable in society.

Mr Owusu-Koranteng made the call at the graduation of the 2022 batch of Professional Executive Master in ADR, at the Institute of Paralegal Training and Leadership Studies (IPLS), in Accra.

Read Full Speech below

SPEECH BY DANIEL OWUSU-KORANTENG (PRESIDENT OF GNAAP) DELIVERED AT THE GRADUATION CEREMONY OF THE PROFESSIONAL EXECUTIVE MASTER IN ALTERNATIVE DISPUTE RESOLUTION (PEMADR)-2024

It is always a joy for me to share some thoughts with Graduands of IPLS who are coming out to be ADR Practitioners to contribute to conflict resolution and peace building in our society.

I believe that IPLS has prepared you adequately in your chosen career of becoming professional ADR Practitioners and I know that you have been equipped with the knowledge and tools to use in understanding conflict and its manifestation, assessing the actors in a conflict situation through conflict mapping, determining the escalation state of a conflict and using methods of de-escalation of conflict to peace building.

I am getting you to appreciate that your understanding of conflict before taking the PEMADR course at IPLS has changed from your perception of conflict as a destructive social phenomenon to an inevitable aspect of human existence which can be transformed into positive human construct by “beating swords into ploughshares”. I know that by now, you are aware that conflict is part of human interaction and wherever there is human interaction, there is bound to be conflict.

If you ask me of the relevance of the PEMADR Course to society, my response would be that, as ADR practitioners, you would be relevant wherever there is human interaction in the church, school, family, workplace etc.

Ladies and Gentlemen, in the same way that an ADR Practitioner can be relevant in many spheres of life, when an ADR Practitioner puts away the ethics of neutrality, confidentiality, honesty, and becomes a corrupt person with no respect for ethics of the profession and thus loses his/her reputation and dignity, that ADR Practitioner becomes a threat to peace in society.

With the erosion of values in our nation, we are fast losing our treasured values of honesty, integrity and reputation in our country and we are paying the price where many people placed in responsible positions do not care about reputation which Shakespeare described in “The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice” when, Cassio the main character in the story acted in a way which made him loose his reputation when he misconducted himself under the influence of alcohol on the advice of his friend Lago. When Cassio recovered from the influence of alcohol and recognized his misbehavior under the influence of alcohol he said, “Oh I have lost my reputation the immortal part of myself and what remains is bestial”.

I have quoted this story of Shakespeare to buttress the importance of good reputation in the practice of ADR and the life of ADR Practitioner because as Cassio said, our reputation is immortal because even when we are dead, our reputation, actions and inactions will continue to live after us. They will not die with us.

Ladies and Gentlemen, future Mediators, in my practice as a Court-Connected Mediator, Panel Member/Formal Hearing Examiner of the Public Utilities Regulatory Commission(PURC) and an Expert Mediator for an International Entrepreneurial Development Bank, I have realized the importance of honesty, dignity and reputation as extremely valuable image that defines a person.

As Mediators, your reputation can take to unimagined heights.

Unfortunately, it has become the norm for people to throw reputation, honesty and dignity to the dogs in pursuit of wealth and that is the reason for our economic challenges despite the enormous natural wealth of gold, diamond, bauxite, timber, oil etc.

Our political leaders especially the people we have elected as our representatives to protect the interest of current and future generations have failed to provide honest leadership to protect our God-given natural wealth and plunged us into bad contracts that have helped foreign interests to siphon our minerals out of the country and left us with the excrements of mining.

I would cite a few provisions in the Minerals and Mining (703), 2006 to buttress my point of the bad regulatory framework of the mining sector as follows:

Section 30(2) The Minister for Finance, in consultation with the Minister acting on the advice of the Commission may, where the net earnings of a holder of a mining lease from the holder’s mining operations are in foreign exchange, permit the holder of the mining lease to open and retain in an account, an amount not less than twenty-five percent of the foreign exchange for; • the acquisition of spare parts, raw materials, and machinery, • debt servicing and dividend payment • remittance in respect of quotas for expatriate personnel • the transfer of capital in the event of a sale or liquidation of the mining operations.

General Penalty

Section 108(1) A person found guilty of an offence under this Act for which a penalty has not been provided is on summary conviction liable on first conviction, to penalty of fine not more than the cedi equivalent of US$ five thousand.

(2) On second or subsequent summary conviction for an offence under this Act, the court may impose a penalty which is not more than twice the penalty referred to in subsection (1)

Penalty to be civil debt

109 Except otherwise provided in this Act, where a fine is imposed on a person under this Act or regulation made under this Act and there is failure to pay the fine, the amount shall be recoverable as civil debt owed to the State.

Dr Everett Hale who was the Priest for American Senate many years ago was asked whether he prayed for the Senators and his response was no and he explained that, “I look at the Senators and I pray for the nation.”

I think many Ghanaians may agree with the statement of Dr Everett Hale.

Our resource curse is a reflection of leadership paralysis resulting from our inability to act in positions of trust based on values of honesty, dignity and high reputation. Ghana requires urgent moral reformation.

As Professional ADR Practitioners, you are expected to have unblemished reputation and dignity. The ADR professional practice would expose you to very private and highly confidential information relating to disputants and you are expected to remember that if an ADR Practitioner loses his/her “reputation what remains is bestial”.

You must see your work of ADR Practice as a missionary work which can be likened to the work of Jesus Christ, Prophet Mohammed and other religious leaders who promoted peace through mediation and other ADR tools.

I want to end my speech by saying that, if a Mediator becomes unethical in his or her practice, then the ADR Practitioner ceases to be a Mediator but rather becomes part of the conflict.

I wish you every success in your professional practice and career as ADR Mediators.