Sarah Kihika Kasande

Sarah Kihika Kasande is a doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Center at the University of Ghent, starting in October 2025. She is part of the ERC-funded GROUNDOC project, which examines and theorizes how innovations in documentation by grassroots actors in aparadigmatic contexts help bridge the emerging gap between theory and practice and reconstruct the transitional justice paradigm from the ground up. Focusing on Uganda, her research explores how innovations in documentation by grassroots actors in Northern Uganda reshape the goals and methods of transitional justice toward more inclusive and victim-centered approaches, while also addressing the implementation gap caused by stalled state-led transitional justice processes.

Sarah is a human rights lawyer with over 13 years of experience supporting peacebuilding and transitional justice initiatives at the grassroots, national, and regional levels. She holds a Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights from the Central European University, Budapest (2009), a Bachelor of Laws (Hons) from Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda (2004), and a postgraduate diploma in legal practice from the Law Development Center, Kampala (2005).

Before joining the Human Rights Center, she served as the Head of Office of the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) in Uganda. She also led the Initiative for Transitional Justice in Africa, a joint programme established by the African Union and the European Union to provide technical support to African Union member states implementing transitional justice processes. Sarah has provided technical assistance on reparations, truth-seeking, criminal accountability, and gender-inclusive transitional justice processes to victims’ groups, civil society organizations, and state actors in various African countries, including Uganda, South Sudan, The Gambia, Tunisia, and Kenya. She has also worked with and engaged communities affected by conflict in Uganda, supporting grassroots women’s groups and social justice initiatives that promote women’s access to justice.

Sarah is a member of the Advisory Committee of the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund. She also served as a Fellow in Residence at the Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide. Additionally, she is a co-founder of Chapter Four Uganda, a human rights organization dedicated to protecting civil liberties in Uganda.

Education background.

• Master of Laws (LLM) in Human Rights, The Central European University, Budapest, Hungary 2008 – 2009
• Postgraduate Diploma in Legal Practice, Law Development Centre, Uganda 2004 – 2005
• Bachelor of Laws (LLB, Hons) Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda 2000 – 2004

Professional experience

• Head of The Initiative for Transitional Justice in Africa Program, International Center for Transitional Justice, March 2023 – September 2025
• Head of Office, International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Uganda June 2016 – September 2025
• Program Associate, International Centre for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), Uganda June 2011 – June 2016
• Senior Legal Officer Uganda Association of Women Lawyers (FIDA-Uganda) July 2009 – May 2011
• Instructor, Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide (AIPG) online course on Sexual and Gender-Based Violence and Mass Atrocities.
• Fellow in Residence, Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide, Global Raphael Lemkin Seminar for Genocide and Mass Atrocity Prevention. 2023, 2024,2025
• Member of the Advisory Committee of the Africa Transitional Justice Legacy Fund
• Member of the Africa Transitional Justice Network
• Founder and Board member, Chapter Four Uganda 

Selected publications.

• Kasande, Sarah. “Beyond Selective Justice: Confronting Atrocities and Delivering Redress to Victims in Northern Uganda.” Journal of International Criminal Justice (2024). https://doi.org/10.1093/jicj/mqae051.
• Kasande, Sarah, and Eva Kallweit. Building Blocks for Reparations: Providing Interim Relief to Victims Through Targeted Development Assistance. New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, September 2020.
• Thomson, Aileen, and Kasande, Sarah. Victim’s Fighting Impunity: Transitional Justice in the African Great Lakes Region. New York: International Center for Transitional Justice, 2017.
• Kasande, Sarah. “Evaluating the Deterrent Effect of the International Criminal Court in Uganda.” In Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: The Deterrent Effect of International Criminal Tribunals, edited by Jennifer Schense and Linda Carter, 263–89. Nuremberg Academy Series No. 1. Nuremberg: International Nuremberg Principles Academy, 2017.