Solome Bossa

Solome Bossa was born on 14 April 1956 in Nsambya Hospital, in Uganda's capital city of Kampala.^[4] Her father, Stanley Walusimbi Ssesanga, was a lawyer and her mother was a housewife.^[5][6]

Bossa attended Ugandan schools for her primary and secondary school education. In 1976, she was admitted to Makerere University, in Kampala, to study law. She graduated with a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree in 1979. She obtained a Diploma in Legal Practice from the Law Development Centre in Kampala. In 1987, she obtained a Certificate in Law Reporting, from the Commonwealth Youth Centre, in Lusaka, Zambia. Later, in 2016, she was awarded a Master of Laws (LLM) degree, by the University of London, specializing in Public International Law.^[7][8]

Bossa has been a human rights activist since 1980 and founded non-profit organisation including the East African Centre for Constitutional Development, the Uganda Network on HIV, AIDS, Ethics and the Law and the Uganda Law Society.^[9][4]

Bossa was a lecturer at the Law Development Centre of Uganda from 1981 until 1997.^[9] She was a legal practitioner from 1988 until 1997, representing indigent women and expanding legal aid, including serving as president of the Uganda Law Society.^[10]

She served as Judge at the Uganda High Court from 1997 until 2013. Bossa was a member of the East African Court of Justice for five years, from 2001 until 2006. She was a member of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (UNICTR) from 2003 until 2013.^[7][8][6][9] Bossa was a judge on the East African Court of Justice from 2001 until 2006 and on the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda from 2003 until 2013.^[9] She was appointed to the Ugandan Constitutional Court in 2013.^[6] In 2014, Bossa was elected Judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, for a six-year term.^[11]

In 2014, Bossa was one of the judges who annulled Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act for not being passed with the required quorum.^[12] She received death threats on social media.^[13]

In 2017, Bossa became a nominee for the International Criminal Court and was elected later that year.^[10]

In June 2025, she was among the 4 judges of the International Criminal Court who were sanctioned by the Trump administration. She along with her colleague, judge Ibanez Carranza, was targeted for being one of the 5 judges of the Appeals chamber that in 2020 authorized the ICC Prosecutor to continue investigating the situation in Afghanistan, including US and NATO personnel - the move which was opposed by the US.^[14]

• International Commission of Jurists, Member
• International Association of Women Judges, Member
• East African Judges and Magistrate Association, Member
• National Association of Women Judges, Member
• Uganda Association of Judges and Magistrates, Member^[4]

Bossa has been married to Joseph Bossa, a lawyer and Uganda People's Congress politician, since 1981. She is the mother of four children.^[5][15]

• Bossa, Solomy Balungi (2010). "A Critique of the East African Court of Justice As A Human Rights Court". In C. Eboe-Osuji (ed.). Protecting Humanity: Essays in International Law and Policy in Honour of Navanethem Pillay. Martinus Nijhoff. pp. 333–348. doi:10.1163/ej.9789004183780.i-882.72. ISBN 9789004189577.
• Bossa, Solomy Balungi (2006). "Towards a protocol extending the jurisdiction of the East African Court of Justice". East African Journal of Human Rights & Democracy. 4: 31.

• Julia Sebutinde