Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa

Uganda
Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa

Judge Bossa was born on 14 April 1956 in Uganda and educated as a lawyer. Since 1997, she has served as Judge of the High Court of Uganda, the East African Court of Justice, and the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. She currently serves as Judge on the Court of Appeal Uganda, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals. In a judicial career spanning eighteen years, she has advanced the rights and status of women, the rights of victims of simple and grave international crime, and human rights.

She has published papers and made presentations on varied contemporary legal issues.

Before becoming a Judge, she served as a lecturer at the Law Development Centre of Uganda for seventeen years and as a legal practitioner for ten years.

As a human rights activist since 1980, she has co-founded and/or chaired non-profit organizations including the East African Law Society, Kituo cha Katiba, the Uganda Network on HIV, AIDs, Ethics and the Law, the National Organization for Civic Education and Election Monitoring, the Uganda Law Society, and the Legal Aid Projects of the Uganda Law Society and the Law Development Centre. She has also chaired Ugandan government entities like the Law Council and the Interim National Steering Committee on Community Service.

She is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, the International Association of Women Judges, the East African Judges and Magistrate’s Association, FIDA Uganda, the National Association of Women Judges, and the Uganda Association of Judges and Magistrates.

She has received several national, regional and international awards in recognition of her distinguished services as a Bar leader, Judge and human rights activist.