Retired High Court Judge Elizabeth Ibanda-Nahamya, an accomplished jury in the areas of international criminal law, human rights and international humanitarian law is dead.
Justice Ibanda-Nahamya passed on at the age of 70, in the Hague, Netherlands Thursday, January 5, 2023.
A statement from the country’s Judiciary stated: “It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Retired High Court Judge, Elizabeth Ibanda Nahamya which occurred earlier today in the Netherlands. Burial arrangements to be communicated later.”
Ibanda-Nahamya was a Ugandan lawyer and judge appointed Judge of the Mechanism for International Criminal Tribunals (MICT) in 2018.
She was appointed by António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations. Her appointment replacement followed the resignation of Judge Solomy Balungi Bossa, who was elected to the International Criminal Court.
She served as a High Court judge in Uganda, where she was assigned to the International Crimes Division of that court.
Besides serving as a distinguished High Court judge, Justice Nahamya also served as a jury for several international courts including; the Special Court for Sierra-Leone, the United Nations Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.
In October 2020, she joined other Justices in Arusha Tanzania; Ian Bonomy (UK-born) and Ms Graciela Susana G. Santana from Uruguay to form a three-judge panel to hear a case of Felicien Kabuga, a Rwanda genocide suspect.
Her retirement from the Judiciary came at the time when she, along with two other judges were conducting a trial of the Muslim clerics.
She was at the time a judge attached to the International Crimes Division of the High Court.
This saw the Judicial Service Commission (JSC) grant her and Justice Ezekiel Muhanguzi, a one-year extension in a bid to conclude the clerics’ trial.
During her illustrious legal career, Justice Nahamya also lectured the Law of Contract, Insurance and the Law of Contract at Ahmadu Bello University Kaduna State Nigeria and at the National University of Lesotho.
She worked with the Central Bank of Lesotho and consulted with the Ministry of Finance in Uganda, the World Bank and the Justice Ministry in Uganda.
She was also a researcher for the Constituent Assembly and successfully advised women delegates to include provisions on minority representations, women’s human rights and issues that pertained to accountability and the environment.