About Betty Mould-Iddrisu
Betty Mould-Iddrisu is a Ghanaian lawyer and politician born 22 March 1953. She was the Minister for Education in Ghana. Her first direct involvement in the Ghana government was as the Attorney General and Minister for Justice of Ghana since 2009. Prior to that, she had been the Head of Legal and Constitutional Affairs of the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. She is the first woman to serve in this capacity in Ghana. Mould-Iddrisu had been one of those thought to be the likely nominee for Vice President of Ghana on the ticket of the National Democratic Congress (NDC).
Betty attended Accra Academy for her secondary education.Later she obtained a bachelor’s degree in Law (L.L.B) from the University of Ghana, Legon between 1973 and 1976. Her academic qualifications include a Master’s Degree gained in 1978 from the London School of Economics. Between 1990 and 2000, at the same time as fulfilling her duties at the London-based Commonwealth Secretariat, she taught at the law faculty of Ghana University, also publishing various papers and articles on intellectual property.
Betty Mould-Iddrisu Career
Politics
In 2009 she was appointed as Ghana’s first female Attorney General and Minister for Justice. In January 2011, she was appointed the Minister of Education and she resigned her position in January 2012.
Law
Betty worked at Ghana’s Ministry of Justice from 1978 till 2003 in several capacities rising to the rank of Chief State Attorney. In view of her expertise in Intellectual Property Law, she headed the administration of Intellectual Property Rights (Copyright) in Ghana and the administration of authors’ rights at the African regional level between1999 – 2000.
From 2000 – 2003 she was in charge of the Ministry’s International Law Division where she spearheaded several cutting edge legal initiatives. These included the implementation of Ghana’s international legal obligations, some of which involved handling both national and regional responses to global human rights issues and issues involving the rights of women and children, trafficking of persons (ECOWAS), Terrorism, (African Union), the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, (Eminent persons panel for a global NGO) and international humanitarian law (International Committee of the Red Cross – ICRC).
In 2003, Betty Mould-Iddrisu was appointed the Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, an intergovernmental organization comprising 53 member states based in London, U.K. In that connection, she managed the implementation of wide ranging mandates by the Legal Division from the Commonwealth’s Heads of State, Law Ministers and Chief Justices.
Some of the highlights of her time at the Secretariat include overseeing implementation of mandates in the area of transnational crime, counter terrorism and international humanitarian law. She was responsible for overseeing the Secretariat’s programs on anti-corruption, asset recovery and judicial ethics. In this capacity, she implemented programs aimed at promoting good governance in member states. Additionally, she implemented diverse legal programs of the Division in judicial reform, legislative drafting, building capacity in the legal field in the Commonwealth and implementing international legal obligations amongst others. She gave advice to member states in the area of international law, constitutional law and human rights and organized several high level ministerial and senior officials meetings. She was frequently called upon to give high level advice to Heads of State, Ministers, governments and high ranking officials, politicians and civil society.
Betty Mould-Iddrisu Photo
Betty Mould-Iddrisu Resignation
Betty resigned from the government in January 2012,however the reasons were not made public. This was a few days after her successor as Attorney-General was sacked by the President. She had been under pressure in relation to a case while she was serving as the Attorney-General. She was succeeded at the Education Ministry by Enoch Teye Mensah.
Betty Mould-Iddrisu Consulting
Betty Mould-Iddrisu has written several articles and acted as a resource person, chair and expert at numerous national, regional and global fora on a wide array of legal and human rights issues. She worked as a consultant for over 20 years to several international and regional bodies in the areas of International law, Intellectual Property law (traditional knowledge and community rights issues) and multilateral trade issues for the United Nations, it’s specialized bodies and other international and regional based organizations. In this capacity she has traveled extensively both in Africa and globally.
Betty is currently the Principal and Managing Partner of Gsell Consultancy Group, an Accra, Ghana based consultancy firm with U.S. affiliates which specializes in issues of development law and spearheads cutting edge leadership and gender initiatives in Africa.
Betty Mould-Iddrisu Personal Life
She is married to Alhaji Iddrisu and together they have with three adult children.