The Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA) Law School has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of the Dominican Republic.
The MoU is an international cooperation agreement between the GIMPA Law School, the government of the Dominican Republic and the Leitner Centre for International Law and Justice at Fordham University School of Law. The agreement is aimed at strengthening prison reform programmes, promoting human rights, and providing legal and technical training in the Dominican Republic.
The agreement, signed through the National Office for Penitentiary Reform Support (ONAPREP) at the Presidency of the Dominican Republic, took place in the Trinitarios Hall of the National Palace in Santo Domingo.
It was signed by Roberto Santana, Presidential Penitentiary Advisor and Head of the Directorate General of Penitentiary and Correctional Services (DGSPC), on behalf of the Dominican Republic.
Dr. Kwaku Agyeman-Budu, Dean of the GIMPA School of Law (Ghana), signed on behalf of the GIMPA Law School, and Professor Paolo Galizzi, on behalf of the Leitner Centre at Fordham University School of Law (New York). Honourable Diana Asonaba Dapaah, former Deputy Minister of Justice of Ghana and Lecturer at GIMPA, also attended the event.
The agreement establishes a collaborative framework for joint research, academic exchanges, training of prison personnel, and technical assistance to improve the Dominican Republic prison system, prioritising the rehabilitation and effective social reintegration of the prison population.
The agreed areas of cooperation include research on criminal justice and human rights, specialized training for prison and judicial system officials, and the creation of spaces for academic and technical dialogue to promote comparative public policies aimed at reducing the number of pretrial detainees, using Ghana’s experience as a reference, where the pretrial detention rate fell from 68% to less than 15% in three years.
As part of the agreement, the signatory institutions also agreed to convene the International Conference on Human Rights, the Penitentiary System, Global Challenges, and Good Practices, a space for academic and technical exchange that will bring together experts from different regions to share experiences, analyse common challenges, and promote sustainable solutions for justice and prison systems.
With an initial term of three years and automatic renewal, the agreement will be implemented through an Interinstitutional Coordination Committee, comprised of representatives from the three signatory entities, responsible for defining lines of action, coordinating projects, and evaluating results. Dr Juan Dionicio Rodríguez, ONAPREP’s justice coordinator, will represent the Dominican side.
This strategic alliance between ONAPREP, GIMPA, and Fordham University reinforces the Dominican Republic’s commitment to international cooperation and to the implementation of prison policies grounded in human rights, education, and social justice.
The Dominican Republic is a Caribbean nation that shares the island of Hispaniola with Haiti to the west and has a population of a little over 11 million people. It is known for its beaches and resorts. Its terrain comprises rainforest, Savannah and highlands, including Pico Duarte, the Caribbean’s tallest mountain. It is the most popular tourist destination in the Caribbean, with the service sector (including tourism, telecommunications and finance) accounting for 60% of the country’s GDP, which was estimated to be 124.3 billion United States Dollars as at 2024, higher than that of Ghana.
