Her Worship Bianca Gyamera-Beeko is the sitting Magistrate for the District Court, Toase in the Ashanti Region of Ghana. She was appointed to this position in July 2022. Bianca has a broad jurisdiction covering both civil and criminal matters. She also chairs a tribunal responsible for determining juvenile matters and serves as the Coroner for her district. Since her appointment, she has disposed of approximately 40 criminal matters and 30 civil matters. She aims to make the dispute resolution process fast, solution-oriented, and as uncomplicated as possible for patrons of her court.
Bianca began her education at Victory Presbyterian School. It was in primary school that she got introduced to the world of human rights advocacy through her membership of the Forum for African Women Educationalists (FAWE) junior club. As a member of this club, she engaged in peer advocacy on topics such as Girl Child Education and HIV/AIDS. She had the opportunity to give keynote addresses and read speeches at programs of the organisation. It was through these activities that Bianca developed a passion for human rights and decided to pursue a career in law.
Bianca continued her education at Aburi Girls’ Secondary School for her secondary school education and for her first degree, she enrolled in the University of Ghana to read Psychology and English. She was selected by the Psychology Department to work as a Teaching Assistant after she completed her degree. Bianca subsequently applied to the University of Ghana Law School and was one out of about 72 post-graduate students admitted out of over 1000 applicants. She served as a member of the editorial board of the University of Ghana Law Students’ Journal and also volunteered to be the manager of the Law Student’s Women's Football Team. Bianca thereafter gained admission to the Ghana School of Law for her professional legal education.
While still a student at the Ghana School of Law, Bianca signed up as a volunteer legal aid officer with the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) Ghana. Her duties and functions included conducting interviews for walk-in clients, providing free legal advice to clients during legal aid clinic sessions on human rights matters and mediating cases. After her call to the bar, she also assisted clients with free legal representation before the courts on numerous occasions to ensure that their rights were protected and respected. Due to her impressive performance as legal aid officer, the Board of FIDA Ghana appointed her as Assistant Secretary in 2020.
In 2021, FIDA Ghana in partnership with Plan International Ghana and Global Affairs Canada commissioned a review of the Government of Ghana’s communication in respect of COVID-19 to assess the extent to which these communications had addressed the needs of women, children and persons with disabilities. Bianca was responsible for the advocacy efforts on this project and appeared on national radio and television stations to share the findings of the review and raise awareness on the need for such government communications to center vulnerable people.
She also represented the organization at high-level stakeholder consultations on human rights issues including a USAID Justice Sector Support Activity roundtable discussion on proposed amendments to the Evidence Act, 1975 (NRCD 323) and High (Civil Procedure) (Amendment) Rules, C.I. 87 to enhance speedy adjudication of cases in courts in Ghana. Bianca also took the initiative to lobby other young women lawyers to sign up as volunteers for the organization.
In September 2017, Bianca was selected by Moremi Initiative for Women’s Leadership in Africa to participate in a WoMentoring Session hosted by Mrs. Ayesha Bedwei Ibe. She was also one of 30 human rights advocates selected from across Africa to participate in the Strategic Human Rights Litigation Course organized by the Open Society for Justice Initiative and the Katiba Institute in November 2022 in Nairobi, Kenya.
Prior to joining the judiciary, Bianca also worked as a Senior Tax and Legal Associate with PricewaterhouseCoopers Ghana Ltd. In this role she provided tax and regulatory compliance advisory services to multinational clients in Ghana, the Gambia, and Sierra Leone.
Bianca’s areas of legal interest are human rights, tax, and criminal law. She aspires to become one of the foremost jurists on the African continent soon and hopes to be appointed to an international court or tribunal someday. She intends to leverage the opportunities available to her as a member of the IAWJ Rising Leaders Cohort to make this dream a reality.