Profile: Mrs Betty Mould Iddrisu

Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu Iddrisu was born on 22nd March, 1953 in Accra. She obtained a Bachelors Degree in Law (L.L.B) from the University of Ghana, Legon between 1973 and 1976.

Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu is an accomplished lawyer and versatile scholar with a graduate degree in law (L.L.M) from the London School of Economics and Political Science, (LSE), University of London in 1978 and a B.L from the Ghana School of Law.She 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 Right (Copyright) in Ghana and the Administration of Authors’ Rights at the African regional level between 1999 and 2000.

From 2000 to 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 legal responses to global human rights issues and others 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).

She is also widely known in several English speaking African countries for her work in international law, human rights and gender.  She chaired both the Ghanaian and African Regional groupings of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) in the 1990’s and co-founded the African Women Lawyers Association (AWLA) in 1999 and chaired it till 2003.

Mrs. 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 international and regional bodies in the area of International Law, Intellectual Property Law (traditional knowledge and community rights issue) and multi lateral trade issues for the UN, its specialised bodies and other international and regional based organisations.  In this capacity, she traveled extensively both in Africa and globally.

In 2003, she was appointed the Director of the Legal and Constitutional Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat, an inter-governmental organisation comprising 53 member states based in London.

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 oversaw the implementation of the Secretariats programmes on anti-corruption, asset recovery and judicial ethics.  In addition, she implemented diverse legal programmes through judicial reforms, legislative drafting and building capacity in the legal field in the Commonwealth amongst others.

She has given advice to Heads of States, Ministers and she is frequently called upon to give high level advice to governments, politicians and civil society.  She also advises member states in the areas of international law, constitutional law and human rights and organises high level ministerial and senior officials meetings.  She headed the Secretariat Team of the Electoral Observer Group to the 2006 Ugandan Elections.

She acts as In-house-Chief legal advisor to the Secretary General and Secretariat.  In that capacity she manages a team of lawyers from diverse backgrounds and is responsible for managing her divisional budget and sourcing for extra budgetary resources.  She also assists the Secretary General and his two Deputies in management of the Secretariat and represents the secretariat at Tribunals and Courts.

Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu is married with three (3) children.

Her hobbies are Reading, Entertaining, Traveling and the Youth.

She was sworn-in in February, 2009 as the Minister of Justice and Attorney General by H.E. Prof. J.E.A. Mills, President of the Republic of Ghana.

On the 4th of January, 2011, Mrs. Betty Mould-Iddrisu was appointed the Minister for Education in a re-shuffle by President Mills.

On late Monday January 23, 2012, she resigned from her post as Education Minister, reliable sources told the Ghana News Agency (GNA).

The sources said she tendered her resignation to the presidency on Monday. Reasons for her resignation not yet clear.

Her resignation followed the firing of Attorney-General Mr Martin Amidu for “misconduct” during a meeting at the Castle on January 13th when he failed to substantiate allegations of “gargantuan crimes” perpetrated against the state by an unnamed colleague.

Mrs Mould-Iddrisu was the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice when the state failed to put up a defence on the suit filed by businessman Mr Alfred Woyome for judgement debt over the abrogation of an alleged contract with the government in 2006 for the rehabilitation of three stadiums.

Source: GNA