Codification of customary laws is the surest way of reducing disputes

Nandom, UWR, March 29, GNA - Naa Dr. Puoure Puobe Chiir VII, Paramount Chief of Nandom in the Upper West Region has observed that the codification of customary laws on land was the surest way of reducing disputes in the country.

He said the lack of laws as regards to the ownership and succession of land, especially in the North had accounted for the many conflict situations in those communities.

Naa Chiir made the observation at a workshop organised by the Nandom Traditional Council at Nandom on Saturday to validate the findings of data collected on land, its usage, ownership and succession in the area. He said if the codification of customary laws on land becomes the guiding principles of how to deal with land issues, land litigation would decrease tremendously

The Nandom-Naa noted that land and chieftaincy disputes were interlinked and that in communities where there land disputes prevailed, chieftaincy disputes in those areas were likely. He said article 272(b) of the 1992 Constitution mandated the National House of Chiefs to undertake the progressive study, interpretation and codification of customary law with a view to evolving, in appropriate cases, a unified system of rules of customary law and compiling the customary laws and lines of succession applicable to each stool or skin. He said because of financial constraints, the house had not been able to carry out that mandate and commended the German Development Cooperation (GTZ) for supporting the project.

Dr. Henry Seidu Danaa, Director of Research at the Ministry of Chieftaincy and Culture, said even though customary law was an important source of law in Ghana, the contents of the rules and practices of any particular community were not always clear.

He noted that in many cases, different versions of the customary law rules compete for dominance, resulting in great uncertainty. Lack of certainty in the customary law and conflicting accounts of customary law rules contribute significantly to family and land disputes in the country, particularly with regard to the management of stool lands.

Dr. Danaa explained that gaps in the knowledge of customary law had also accounted for the high incidence of chieftaincy disputes in the communities. This state of affairs therefore calls for the need for the ascertainment and codification of customary law rules and it is anticipated that significant benefits are likely to accrue from the reduction of protracted and costly chieftaincy and land disputes, he noted. Mr. Thomas Tagoe, National Research Coordinator of the Ascertainment and Codification Law Project (ACLP) said the final output of the project would make use of land and family law certain and that would assist in the settlement of disputes and bring more transparency in land transaction to enhance development.

He said 20 traditional areas in the country's 10 regions had been selected for the collection of data and mentioned Kaleo and Nandom as those selected in the region. The project would among others, undertake literature review on customary land and family law; codifying the ascertained laws by harmonizing those of common application in the form of legislation, while those peculiar traditional areas would be declared as such in accordance with existing laws.

Mr. Tagoe said a regional validation workshop would be held for some traditional areas to make inputs into the data collected from the selected two traditional areas. The ACLP and the National House of Chiefs in collaboration with the Law Reform Commission organised the forum for the chiefs to validate responses gathered in the traditional area during a field research conducted in 2009. 29 March 10