The Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, has called for the deletion of a key provision in the proposed Tribunals Bill, 2026, warning that the creation of district and regional tribunals would establish a parallel justice system and undermine Ghana’s existing judicial architecture.
The bill, currently before Parliament, seeks to reintroduce public tribunals as part of efforts to strengthen the administration of justice and improve access to courts.
If passed, it will establish a reformed tribunal system to operate alongside the traditional courts, with constitutional backing, oversight mechanisms and safeguards for due process and human rights.
It also seeks to operationalise Article 126 of the 1992 Constitution, which provides for tribunals within Ghana’s judicial system but has largely remained dormant over the years.
Contributing to the debate on the bill in Parliament on Thursday, July 16, 2026, Mr. Afenyo-Markin urged the House to delete Clause 4 in its entirety, arguing that there was no justification for creating additional judicial structures when the country’s existing courts remained functional.
“Mr. Speaker, I move that the entire Clause 4 be deleted,” he said.
“My reason is very simple.”
The Minority Leader argued that while Articles 125 and 126 of the Constitution recognise the possibility of establishing tribunals, they do not compel Parliament to create them.
He maintained that Parliament should instead strengthen the existing court system rather than establish new institutions that could create uncertainty in the administration of justice.
“What kind of chaos are we introducing?” he asked.
“You have a district court, you have a circuit court, you have a high court, you have a court of appeal, you have a judiciary architecture that is not broken.”
According to him, disagreements over some judicial decisions should not be used to justify the establishment of what he described as a competing justice system.
“The disagreement we may have with certain pronouncements of certain judges… does not mean that we create some parallel structures that we call it a justice system,” he said.
Mr. Afenyo-Markin questioned the intended jurisdiction of the proposed tribunals and whether they would handle civil or criminal matters, arguing that the bill lacked clarity on how the new bodies would fit into Ghana’s existing judicial hierarchy.
“How on earth do we create a new system to compete with a known system just because somewhere in the Constitution certain pronouncements are made?” he asked.
The Minority Leader said the Constitution deliberately gives Parliament discretion over whether to establish tribunals, insisting that lawmakers should exercise that discretion by rejecting the proposal.
“The Constitution says Parliament may determine,” he said. “I am saying that this Parliament must know that the justice architecture we have is not a broken architecture.”
Instead of creating new tribunals, Mr. Afenyo-Markin called for greater investment in the judiciary, including digitising courts, improving infrastructure and providing judges with adequate resources to speed up justice delivery.
The Minority Leader further warned that introducing a parallel tribunal system could undermine public confidence in the courts and complicate the administration of justice.
“I contend that creating this new tribunal system by this proposal will bring chaos to the justice delivery system we have in our country,” he said.
The Tribunal Bill, 2026, forms part of the government’s efforts to revive the constitutional tribunal system by establishing district and regional tribunals to operate alongside the conventional courts. The government argues the reforms will improve access to justice while incorporating stronger oversight mechanisms and safeguards to protect due process and human rights.
However, the Minority maintains that strengthening the existing court structure, rather than creating new tribunals, is the better path to improving justice delivery in Ghana.
