Annie Ruth Jiagge

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which aims to eradicate all forms of discrimination based on sex and gender, is an indispensable treaty for women and girls worldwide. Given its profound impact, today’s sphere of international human rights law would look vastly different. But few people know that the CEDAW treaty was preceded by a 1967 draft by Annie Ruth Jiagge.

In an effort to strengthen women’s rights, the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) entrusted the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) with drawing up a document on the elimination of discrimination against women. When the meeting was coming to an end after two weeks, the selected committee had not yet been able to produce a single draft. Therefore, Jiagge (elected rapporteur of the Commission in 1966) took matters into her own hands. After consulting with other team members, she drew up a draft overnight which was sent to UN member states for comment and adopted as the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (DEDAW) by the UNGA on 7 November 1967.¹⁾

However, reporting procedures were voluntary and government response was minimal, leading the UN General Assembly to adopt the legally binding CEDAW Convention in 1979.²⁾Jiagge’s preliminary draft and the insights gained from DEDAW were significant stepping stones in the development of the CEDAW treaty.

From the classroom to the courtroom

Annie Ruth Jiagge (née Baëta) was born on 7 October 1918 in Lomé, a territory formerly part of French Togoland – one of many African colonies under European governance during that period – and now part of the Togolese Republic.³⁾ At a young age, Jiagge’s parents sent her to live with her grandmother in Keta on the Gold Coast so that she could receive an English education.⁴⁾After junior secondary school, Jiagge studied teaching at Achimota College from 1933 to 1937. The following year, she began her first teaching position at the Presbyterian Girls School in Keta where she quickly rose to the position of headmistress (1940-1946).⁵⁾

Nevertheless, teaching “left her restless”. During her studies at Achimota College, Jiagge went on a tour of the Law Courtsin Accra, which must have left a lasting impression as she subsequently chose to pursue legal studies. Due to the unavailability of law courses on the Gold Coast, her older brother took the initiative to inquire on her behalf at the University of London. After successfully passing the London Matriculation Examination, Jiagge was granted admission to the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and Lincoln’s Inn.⁶⁾

Many of Jiagge’s male colleagues thought she was inclined to fail her studies.⁷⁾) They believed women were not suited for law and suggested that she should study dressmaking in Paris instead. At the time, teaching was considered a respectable profession for women.⁸⁾ Law, however, was still a male-dominated field.⁹⁾ Despite the discouragement, Jiagge travelled to London and pursued her studies at LSE, where she was one of only four female students and the only African enrolled in her class.¹⁰⁾ But she “refus[ed] to be intimidated” as she was “trained to value her intelligence” by her parents and had the support of her family, i.e. financially.¹¹⁾ In 1949, she received her L.L.B., making her one of the first female lawyers from Ghana.

She then returned to the Gold Coast to work as a barrister.¹²⁾Following her marriage to Fred KA Jiagge in 1953, Annie Ruth Jiagge felt pressured to combine a professional career with domestic responsibilities. As a result, she gave up the bar to become a magistrate judge, being the first woman in Ghana to hold this position. In 1959, the same year that Jiagge and her husband adopted a child, she was promoted to the circuit court. Just two years later, she made history as the first woman in Ghana and one of the first in the Commonwealth of Nations to be appointed to the position of High Court judge, where she served until 1969.¹³⁾ She then became the first female judge of the Court of Appeal, the highest court in Ghana at that time, and was the court’s president from 1980 to 1983.¹⁴⁾ In 1974, Justice Jiagge was awarded a J.D. by the University of Ghana.¹⁵⁾

“A quiet heroine, a woman who understood the pain of women.” ¹⁶⁾

Until her death on 12 June 1996 in Accra, Jiagge diligently fought for gender equality. Her advocacy contributed to the recognition and codification of women’s rights as international human rights.¹⁷⁾ However, this fight was not one of smooth sailing. Jiagge was promoting women’s rights in Ghana before the government had even recognized the ubiquitous discrimination against women to be of political relevance.¹⁸⁾ Over time, she identified several crucial aspects contributing to the advancement of gender equality.

According to her, it is important to identify discriminatory legislation and replace it with laws safeguarding women’s rights.¹⁹⁾ She was influential in this endeavour not only at the international level but also at the national level. As a member of the constituent assembly in 1991, she pressed for the legal regulation of the age of marriage, consent to marriage, maintenance and custody of children, and inheritance and divorce, ensuring that the constitution of Ghana’s Third Republic included laws protecting women.²⁰⁾

But Jiagge recognized that the modification of legislation would not suffice as it “alone cannot address deep-rooted prejudices and structural obstacles.” Further, she insisted: “It is up to women to liberate themselves. Although outside help is useful, there are few examples of oppressed people being freed by others. The real liberation struggle takes place in the camp of the oppressed and there are quite a few male allies anxious to help.” To achieve this state of emancipation, Annie Ruth Jiagge considered education to be key. She believed that women would acquire “political maturity” through education and in turn feel empowered to fight for their rights and claim their seat at the table. However, she felt a certain “inertia” from women.²¹⁾ She faults the “traditional belief that women have only limited potentialities in limited spheres”,²²⁾which has “[…] conditioned [them] into thinking that there is only one way of life for them, only one means of fulfilment – in motherhood and homemaker.”²³⁾ She thought, “[…] women on the whole have accepted such discrimination as privilege. Women have also accepted discrimination as justifiable on religious grounds.”²⁴⁾

This remark may seem paradoxical, considering faith played a central role in Jiagge’s life. She was introduced to Christianity at an early age since her father was a Presbyterian Church minister.²⁵⁾ Moreover, her grandmother lived in the house of German missionary sisters²⁶⁾ who instilled strong Christian principles in Annie. Throughout her life, she was actively involved in various church organizations, e.g. volunteering with the British Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) during her time in London. Upon her return, she played a pivotal role in the establishment of the YWCA in the Gold Coast where she acted as the organization’s president from 1955 to 1960. Jiagge also served the World Council of Churches i.a. in the fight against Apartheid in South Africa.²⁷⁾ She was the first African woman to be named president of the WCC in 1975.

Photo Credit: Peter Williams/ WCC

Caption: Anne Justice Jiagge, Pre-Assembly Women’s event (PAWM) of the World Council of Churches, Canberra, Australia, 2-6 February 1991; Source: WCC archives, A05042-13

Despite her devotion to Christianity, Jiagge was able to differentiate between Christian values and the systemic oppression of one gender under the guise of religious belief. Both her mother and grandmother taught her to think for herself. Additionally, her alma mater, Achimota College, was progressive for a Christian institution at the time; it aimed to create equal opportunities for boys and girls and was the first co-educational school established on the Gold Coast. Through her work with the YWCA Jiagge encountered many people in need whose stories deeply affected her and “made her rethink her own faith”. One author therefore suggests that “[…] her belief in and advocacy for social reforms were […] the consequence of her deep Christian faith and commitment […].”²⁸⁾

Alongside education, empowering women hinges on the accessibility of financial aid. This issue became poignantly clear to Jiagge when she led the Ghanaian delegation at the first World Conference on Women in 1975.²⁹⁾ Before the conference, she consulted with a variety of women from all over Ghana, the major takeaway being the lack of (micro)credit extended to women. This issue resonated with women at the conference and led to the emergence of the “Stitching to Promote Women’s World Banking” initiative. Jiagge served on the board of directors of Women’s World Banking (WWB) in Ghana.

Intersectional Feminism

Annie Ruth Jiagge did not just fight against the oppression of women but also against the oppression of “the developing world”. Both cumulated in her intersectional approach to feminism. She emphasized that women from Africa face various forms of discrimination that are intertwined, namely “gendered inequalities, traditional beliefs and practices, imperialism, neo-colonialism, and under-development. ³⁰⁾Jiagge grew up in “one of the most patriarchal and marginalized regions of Ghana”.³¹⁾ Thus, she knew that effectively strengthening women’s rights requires an approach that takes all those factors into account and how they exacerbate each other. At the first World Conference on Women, she encountered women who lacked understanding for the importance of an intersectional approach to feminism, “they thought women from the third world were too occupied with development issues”.³²⁾ To Jiagge, this was incomprehensible; “How can anyone who belongs to and benefits from her country’s system of economic strangulation ever complain of any discrimination against herself without at the same time seeking to lighten the burden of those oppressed by her own country?”.³³⁾ In her call for solidarity, she emphasizes that women from the “developing world” should be leading the charge in the fight for gender equality in their countries as they possess the necessary insight.³⁴⁾ Further, she believed that the emancipation of African women would fuel the continent’s emancipation.³⁵⁾ Her call for the liberation of African states reflected the demands of the then-emerging anti-neo-colonialist³⁶⁾movement.

Legacy

Justice Annie Ruth Jiagge was a warrior for women’s rights and female empowerment. She understood the social justice issues of “the developing world” and fought for their international visibility with formidable dedication. She was perceived as determined, ingenious, responsible, and empathic.³⁷⁾

Her exceptional leadership qualities were valued both nationally and internationally. After the Nkrumah regime was overthrown in 1966 because of growing dissatisfaction and corruption concerns, Jiagge was asked to chair a commission investigating the assets accumulated by senior public servants and political leaders.³⁸⁾ Jiagge was a representative of Ghana on the UNCSW from 1962 to 1972 and after her draft in 1967, she was asked to chair the 21st session of the UNCSW. She played an influential role in the founding of the National Council on Women and Development (NCWD) in Ghana, in response to UNGA resolution 3275 recommending member states to “establish […] appropriate national machinery to accelerate the integration of women in development and to eliminate discrimination on grounds of sex”, and served as the NCWD’s president from 1975 to 1983. She led the Ghanaian delegation at the International Women’s Conference not only in 1975 but again in 1980 and helped to plan the 4th World Conference on Women in 1993 after UN Secretary-General Boutros-Ghali personally requested her as a member of his advisory group.³⁹⁾

However, her strong sense of justice is what stood out the most. “Annie Baeta Jiagge expect[ed] a lot of herself … and a lot of humanity, in which she ha[d] great faith.”⁴⁰⁾

“Injustice eats me internally. I get very restless when I come in touch with it.”

Further Readings:

• Atobrah, Deborah/ Awedoba, Albert K. (2019): “A Trail-Blazer, An Outstanding International Jurist, A Humanitarian, An Ecumenical Christian And More…The Life of Justice Annie Jiagge (Née Baëta)” in Mercy Akrofi Ansah & Esi Sutherland (Eds.) “Building the Nation: Seven Notable Ghanaian”, Digibooks Ghana.
• Chesler, Ellen (2022): “Who wrote CEDAW?”. in Rebecca Adami & Dan Plesch (Eds.) “Women and the UN – A new history of women’s international human rights”, Routledge Explorations in Development Studies.
• Jiagge, Annie Ruth (1969): “The role of non-governmental organizations in the education of women in African states”, Convergence, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 73-78.
• Jiagge, Annie Ruth (1984): “The cry of the poor”, International Review of Mission, vol. 73, no. 290, pp. 173-184.

Further Sources:

• Documentary “When Women Speak”: https://whenwomenspeakfilm.com/the-documentary/
• UN-sponsored film “Fear Women”: https://media.un.org/avlibrary/en/asset/d203/d2039182