Annie Jiagge

Annie Ruth Jiagge, who lived from October 7, 1918, to June 12, 1996, was born in Lome, French Togoland, and became the first woman in Ghana and in the Commonwealth of Nations to be appointed a judge. She earned her LLB from the London School of Economics in 1949 and was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1950, then rose through the Ghanaian judiciary from circuit court judge in 1959 through the High Court of Justice in 1961 to the Court of Appeal in 1969, ultimately serving as President of the Court of Appeal from 1980 to 1983. Beyond the bench, she helped draft the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, co-founded the organization that became Women's World Banking, served on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women from 1962 to 1972, and served as president of the World Council of Churches from 1975 to 1983.