TUC rejects return of public tribunals, urges government to withdraw Bill

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has strongly opposed plans to reintroduce public tribunals into Ghana's judicial system, calling on the government to immediately withdraw the Tribunals Bill currently before Parliament.

Addressing a press conference in Accra after a meeting of the TUC Steering Committee, the Secretary-General of the Congress, Joshua Ansah, said the proposed legislation ignored Ghana's past experiences with tribunals and risked undermining confidence in the country's justice system.

According to him, the TUC believes the Bill, in its current form, could be used to politicise the administration of justice.

"The Bill, when passed into law, can be a potent tool for weaponising justice delivery and entrench the perception held by many that our justice system is up for grabs by politicians," Mr. Ansah stated.

He said the union's opposition stems from what it described as the country's "collective bitter experiences" with tribunals, insisting that those lessons should discourage any attempt to revive the system.

Mr. Ansah urged President John Dramani Mahama and Parliament to heed the recommendations of the Constitution Review Committee (CRC), which proposed the removal of Regional Tribunals from the 1992 Constitution.

"We call on the President and Parliament to heed the advice of the Constitution Review Committee. Government must halt the current legislative process of enacting the Tribunals Bill, expunge Regional Tribunals from the Constitution and take meaningful steps to properly resource our judiciary," he said.

He stressed that Ghana's legal history should guide future reforms rather than revive institutions that many citizens associate with injustice.

"If law is properly seen as an embodiment of our collective historical experience, then the recent history of Public Tribunals must lead us away from any attempt to re-establish Regional and District Tribunals. The Bill must be withdrawn from Parliament," he added.

Mr. Ansah said the TUC had closely monitored public and parliamentary discussions on the Bill and had engaged various stakeholders before reaching its position.

He recalled that in its memorandum to the Constitution Review Committee, the TUC had recommended the complete removal of provisions relating to Regional Tribunals from the Constitution, arguing that they had outlived their usefulness.

The TUC Secretary-General noted that the Constitution Review Committee, chaired by Professor H. Kwasi Prempeh, reached a similar conclusion in its final report, recommending that Regional Tribunals be abolished because the High Court has effectively taken over their workload.

Mr. Ansah said it was therefore surprising that the government was seeking to reactivate the tribunals despite those recommendations.

Beyond the Tribunals Bill, the TUC also criticised the government's handling of the constitutional review process.

Mr. Ansah recalled that the Constitution Review Committee was established in January 2025 and submitted its final report in December that year. While the TUC had supported the constitutional review exercise, he said the government had yet to publish the committee's full report, making only a summary of its recommendations available.

He argued that the government should first publish the complete report and its official response before initiating constitutional amendments.

According to him, such a process would allow for meaningful public debate and consultations before any changes are made to the Constitution.

Instead, he said, the government appears to be selectively implementing portions of the committee's recommendations, a practice the TUC believes undermines transparency and the credibility of the entire constitutional review process.

The TUC has therefore called on the government to publish the full report of the Constitution Review Committee, make public its position on the recommendations, and abandon what it described as a "pick-and-choose" approach to constitutional reform.