Justice Bright Mensah rrecommends Chinese language training for judges in galamsey-prone areas
Supreme Court nominee Justice Philip Bright Mensah has proposed that judges stationed in illegal mining zones receive Chinese language training to help address persistent difficulties in prosecuting foreign nationals, particularly Chinese citizens, involved in galamsey.
Appearing before Parliament’s Appointments Committee on Tuesday, June 17, 2025, Justice Mensah highlighted language barriers as a major obstacle to securing convictions in illegal mining cases.
“When they are arrested, especially these Chinese people and sent to the court, the difficulty is that they don’t speak English. Even if they understand English, they refuse to speak English,” he noted. “And because the police and enforcement agencies also are unable to speak their language, it becomes more difficult to get them prosecuted,” he said.
He noted that inadequate interpretation during court proceedings often results in delayed trials or dismissed cases.
“The interpreters themselves, sometimes they are also a problem,” he added. “So if the Judge himself understands the language, it will be better served for him to understand what he is doing for us to be able to curb the menace of galamsey.”
To tackle the issue, Justice Mensah suggested that the Judicial Training Institute (JTI) be equipped to offer Chinese language instruction, or alternatively, that selected judges be sent to China for language training.
“The Judges must either be taken to China for further studies in Chinese language, or the JTI must be resourced to bring experts to come and train our Judges,” he said. “Because if the person has committed an offence and you can’t prosecute him, then it is as well saying that ‘oh let me leave him to go away,” he stated.
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