Act 1036: Stool, families creating Customary Land Secretariat difficult, says Justice Osei Tutu
The discussion equally focused on Justice Alexander Osei Tutu’s new book; The Essential Themes in Land and Customary Law. Launched last week at the Law Court Complex, the book dissects Act 1036.
A justice of Ghana’s High Court and of The Gambia, Justice Alexander Osei Tutu says the provision in the new land Act, (Act 1036) which requires stools and families to create a customary land secretariat would be difficult to achieve.
Speaking on The Law programme by host Samson Lardy Anyenini, Justice Osei Tutu explained he believes it would be a challenge due to the many functions required by the Secretariat under section 15 (1) of the Act, and that managing a customary land secretariat would demand the involvement of experienced individuals.
“The law as it stands, it is requiring every stool, every family… look at the number of families that we have in Ghana. And if they are all to create their own secretariat, I think it would be difficult,” he said.
“Where are they even going to get the human resource from to manage these…. If you go to the law, the functions of the secretariat under section 15 (1) have been spelled out. They are a lot, and I believe that it will require a very experienced person to be able to perform these responsibilities. And you go to the villages, you may have many families, but only a few persons who are academically endowed and will be able to perform the work. Let’s say we have two or three educated individuals, are they going to do this work for all the families in that village?”
Under the Act, there are about eight functions to be performed by the Customary Land Secretariat.
These include recording the interest and rights in land, keeping and maintaining accurate and up-to-date records of land transactions, providing a list of existing customary interests and rights, facilitating the settlement of land disputes through alternative dispute resolution, preparation of local plans, and undertaking community education, sensitisation on land issues among others.
Justice Osei Tutu further states that a centralized land secretariat would have been a more appropriate approach.
“I was thinking we would have a uniform secretariat that will take care of all these customary entities. Like a secretariat that will register all the lands without leaving it to individual families and stools to create their own secretariat. So I thought that because the responsibilities entrusted in the secretariat are quite exhaustive, I thought they could have centralized it for experienced personnel to manage it," he said.
The discussion equally focused on Justice Alexander Osei Tutu’s new book; The Essential Themes in Land and Customary Law. Launched last week at the Law Court Complex, the book dissects Act 1036.
