Esme Chombo

Esme Jynet Chombo is a Malawian High Court Magistrate who became the Malawian Ambassador to the United States, Canada and Mexico until 2026. She is a champion of women's rights and human rights. She gained attention internationally for ruling against Madonna's second adoption, which opened an international debate about the rights of children, celebrity adoptions and child trafficking in international adoption.

Justice Chombo presided over some high-profile cases in the country. She was the presiding judge over pop star Madonna's second adoption case for her daughter Chifundo. Chombo denied Madonna the right to adopt a child on the basis of residency clauses in Malawi's adoption laws. Her verdict caused international debate over the rights of children. Chombo later served as the Chairperson of the Malawi Law Commission's Special Law Commission on the Review of the Adoption of Children Act from 2009 – 2012.

She led the ten commissioners who served on the Special Law Commission on Abortion. They reported in 2015 recommending the decriminalisation of abortion. The more legal approach extended the circumstances where abortion could be permitted that included rape and incest. It did not include financial considerations. One of the commissioners Anne Phoya noted that this would be a significant relaxation because Malawi was a poor country so many could use this as justification.

She was the founding President of Malawi's Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges, Women Judges Association of Malawi in 2011. She has served on the board of numerous organizations. She worked as a High Court Justice until being appointed as Malawi's ambassador to the U.S. in 2021. She was one of her country's twenty ambassadors and she was also the non-resident ambassador to Mexico and Canada until 2026.

Philanthropy She is an honorary board member of the non-profit group Age Africa.