Professor of Law at the University of Ghana School of Law and former Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy (LECIAD)
Professor Mensa-Bonsu is a Professor of Law at the University of Ghana, School of Law, and former Director of the Legon Centre for International Affairs and Diplomacy. She is also fellow and current President of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Professor Mensa-Bonsu has researched and published extensively on Criminal Law and Criminal Justice, Family Law, and Children’s Rights. Currently, she teaches Criminal Law, Jurisprudence, and Conflict Resolution Theory and Practices at the University of Ghana School of Law.
On the Peace and Security front, Henrietta Mensa-Bonsu has served in several high-level national and international capacities. On the national plane, her most prominent assignments were her membership of the National Reconciliation Commission, the Ghana Police Council, and currently the National Governing Council of the African Peer Review Mechanism. On the international plane, she has served as the ECOWAS nominee on the International Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) for the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission; member of the OAU’s Committee of Eminent Jurists on the Lockerbie Case; and the AU’s Committee of Eminent Jurists on the Hissene Habre Case. In 2007-2011, she was appointed the Deputy Special Representative for Rule of Law in the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL).
Since 2011, she has twice served as a Civilian Mentor to ECOWAS Mission Leadership Courses, (2012, 2016) and three times as a Mentor and Resource Person on the U.N. Senior Mission Leadership Course (2014, 2016, 2017); and on both the Pilot and First Police Commissioners Course. She has also twice served as a Resource Person on Leadership courses for women in the UN, and for the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) and three times on the UN Staff Officers Course at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping and Training Centre (KAIPTC). In 2014-2015, she served on the UN Secretary-General’s High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations (HIPPO). She has served as a member of the Advisory Board of the African Peacebuilding Network (APN) of the Social Science Research Council of the USA. She currently serves on the National Development Planning Commission of Ghana and STAR-GHANA Foundation – a grant-making civil society Foundation; and Board of Trustees of the Methodist Church, Ghana.