Supreme Court Justice calls for early action to prevent violent conflicts

Supreme Court Justice Henrietta J.A.N. Mensah-Bonsu says communities must not wait for disputes to reach the courts before acting to protect peace.

She has urged the creation of stronger local systems that can detect tensions early and help resolve grievances before they grow into violent conflict.

Justice Mensah-Bonsu made the call in Accra during a high-level panel discussion on traditional, interfaith and judicial perspectives on silencing the guns in Africa.

She said peace is best preserved when societies respond quickly to signs of disagreement, mistrust or breakdown in community consensus.

According to her, conflicts often become harder to manage when intervention is delayed.

“How do we ensure that peace grows rather than that peace diminishes? When things begin to happen that affect the consensus around which a society is built, that is the time to act. If you wait too long, things degenerate,” she said.

Justice Mensah-Bonsu noted that the judiciary remains important in resolving disputes.

However, she said courts usually become involved only after conflicts have already escalated.

For that reason, she argued that prevention should be treated as a central part of peacebuilding.

“The judiciary has a role, but by the time the matter gets to the judiciary, it’s a little late,” she said.

She also pointed to rapid urbanisation as one of the factors weakening traditional systems that once helped communities settle disputes and maintain social harmony.

According to her, many of those older institutions no longer have the same influence in modern urban communities.

Justice Mensah-Bonsu therefore proposed the development of smaller community-based mechanisms that can provide timely and accessible dispute resolution.

She said such institutions would help people seek justice early, especially those who may not have the resources to pursue formal legal processes.

“As we urbanise, some of the traditional institutions that kept us at peace and upheld the consensus within our communities no longer have the influence they once had,” she said.

She added that new local structures could help fill that gap by giving residents a practical way to address problems before they become larger conflicts.

“Is it possible for us to create new smaller community-based institutions that make it possible for people to have justice, for example, when there’s a problem?” she asked.

Her comments formed part of broader discussions on how Africa can reduce violent conflict through prevention, dialogue, traditional authority, faith-based engagement and judicial support.