Emmanuel Akwei Addo

Addo was born in Accra on 10 September 1943 to Emmanuel Addoquaye Addo and Rose Finola Addo (née Aryee).

Addo was enrolled at the Methodist Primary School in Koforidua and later Government Boys School in Kumasi between 1949 and 1957 for his elementary education. In 1958, he furthered his education at Accra Academy where he obtained the Ordinary level certificate in 1962 and Mfantsipim School where he obtained the Advanced level certificate in 1964. In 1965, he entered University of Ghana where he read the LLB programme, graduating in 1968. He studied at the Ghana School of Law and was called to the Ghanaian Bar in 1969.[1] Addo studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge for an M. A. in Public International Law received in 1978.[2][3]

In 1970, Addo joined the Attorney-General's Office in Accra and was in the same year, posted to the Attorney-General's Office in Ho in the Volta Region of Ghana. In 1973 he was put in charge of the Attorney General's Office in Ho and headed the office for the next seven years.[1] In 1974, Addo was a member of the Ghanaian delegation on the Ghana-Togo Border Demarcation Commission. From 1979 to 1989 he was the Regional Representative of the Attorney General's Office in Tamale in the Northern Region of Ghana.[1]

In 1987, he was appointed a member of the Yendi reconciliation committee by the PNDC government to implement the Supreme Court Judgement on the Yendi Skin Dispute.[1] He was then appointed to serve as director of the International Law Division of the Ministry of Justice.

In 1989, Addo was promoted chief state attorney and seconded to Ghana's Ministry of Foreign Affairs as director of the Legal and Consular Bureau and worked as legal advisor to the ministry from 1989 to 1998. From this position, he served on the sixth legal committee of the U.N. General Assembly. In 1997, he was elected a member of the International Law Commission of the United Nations for its forty-ninth session and remained a member until its fifty-eighth session held in 2006.[4]

In 2002, he was nominated as a judge of Court of Appeal and was sworn in on the 18th June 2002. In 2005, he became the United Nations independent expert on the situation of human rights in the Sudan. He served for five years as a judge retiring in 2007. In 2009, Addo was nominated by President John Atta-Mills to serve as Chairman of an inter ministerial review committee to re-examine the agreement concluded between Ghana and Vodafone on Ghana Telecom.[5][6]

Addo was a Christian and a member of the Methodist Church. Addo married Pamela Nyuietor Tay on 5th April in 1975 in Ho. They had three children; David-Tufa Nii Adotey Addo, Stephanie Naa Adoley Addo and Naa Adorkor Addo.[2]