16/07/2026
*We are glad to announce Sheila Minkah-Premo, Esq. as our keynote speaker for the 10th Anniversary Public Lecture of the Young African Women Congress (YAWC) Network.*
Sheila Y. N. Minkah-Premo Esq. is a senior lawyer, development consultant and human rights activist. She holds a law degree from the University of Ghana, Legon and was called to the Ghanaian Bar in 1989. She also holds a master’s in law (LL.M) from the Georgetown University Law Centre, Washington DC, in the United States of America, 1995 where she studied as part of the Leadership and Advocacy on Women in Africa (LAWA) component of the Women’s Law and Public Policy Fellowship Programme.
She is the Managing Consultant of ALC Law Consult, a law firm in Accra that provides legal services in civil law including corporate law, land securitization and family law litigation. She is also a development consultant and has been involved in research on marriage laws and other family law related issues. Under the Legal Pluralism and Gender Pilot Project undertaken with funding from the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) from 2007 to 2011. She continued with the same project with World Bank funding under the Ministry of lands from 2012 to 2017 She has been involved in the preparation of a number of policies including: a co-consultant for the development of a Gender Policy for the Judicial Service in 2011; the Justice for Children Police of 2015; the National Gender Policy of 2025 among others. She assisted with the drafting of laws including the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act, 2024 (Act 1121) and others. She has worked on the human rights aspects of Harmful Traditional Practices at the African Union for GIZ in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. (2013). She also lectures in family law at The Law Institute, a paralegal training institute in Accra.
She has worked in ensuring that women enjoy their constitutional rights. She is the Convener of the Affirmative Action Law Coalition, which pushed for the passage of the Affirmative Action (Gender Equity) Act of 2024. She led the Coalition to submit proposals to the Constitutional
Review Committee of Ghana for the amendment of the Fourth Republican Constitution (1992) to mandate gender inclusion in election into Parliament.
She is the President of the Ghana Bar Association’s Women’s Forum and a member of the Bar Council. She belongs to several human rights organisations including: LAWA-Ghana Alumnae Incorporated, African Women Lawyers Association, Africa Leadership Initiative for West Africa (ALIWA) and ZONTA Club, Ghana.
