Lydia Mugambe

Lydia Mugambe Ssali is a Ugandan lawyer. She was the Inspector General of Government on 18 September 2020 and previous UN Criminal Tribunal Judge. She previously served as a judge at the High Court of Uganda between 2013 and 2020.

In 2025, Mugambe was convicted of immigration and modern slavery offences in the United Kingdom Mugambe was studying for a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil) postgraduate degree in law at the University of Oxford, England, in 2024, until her arrest. Career

Mugambe was a senior magistrate in the Ugandan judiciary from 2000 to 2005, and worked in various capacities at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2005. on 15 May 2013 until September 2020

In January 2017, Mugambe delivered a judgement against Mulago National Referral Hospital, which had been sued by Jennifer Musimenta and her husband Micheal Mubangaizi, for the disappearance of their newborn baby. The judge found the hospital culpable of negligence and awarded the couple USh85 million (approximately US$24,000) in damages. The ruling was hailed by legal observers and non-profit organisations in Uganda as a watershed judgment towards the recognition of "the rights of poor, vulnerable and marginalized women".

Mugambe was also appointed a Judge of the United Nations International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals on 26 May 2023, with term from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2026, and was involved in a number of matters as a Single Judge. This is a position that she has now resigned, with the mechanism noting that Mugambe's convictions were "extremely grave matters".

Mugambe is a Columbia University fellow at Columbia's Institute for the Study of Human Rights and is an Oxford Human Rights Hub member.

Mugambe claimed diplomatic immunity due to her status as a Ugandan High court judge and a United Nations judge before she was arrested—this was shown in a short BBC video Mugerwa had diplomatic immunity as a Ugandan diplomat and could not be charged with any offences. She was sentenced in May 2025 to a term of 6 years and 4 months imprisonment, the judge noting in his sentencing remarks that she had showed absolutely no remorse and looked to blame the victim. The sentencing judge further remarked that Mugambe had been "thoroughly dishonest" in the accounts given to the police, and to the court during her trial.