Ex-Columbia human rights fellow convicted of 'modern slavery' in U.K.
A United Nations judge and former fellow at Columbia University, Lydia Mugambe, was recently convicted for the human trafficking of a young woman.
According to a report from the Thames Valley Police, Mugambe was 'convicted of immigration and modern slavery offences in Oxfordshire' on March 13.
A United Nations judge and former fellow at Columbia University in New York, Lydia Mugambe, was recently convicted for the human trafficking of a young woman.
According to a report from the Thames Valley Police, Mugambe was “convicted of immigration and modern slavery offences in Oxfordshire” on March 13, including facilitating illegal immigration into the United Kingdom and “requiring a person to perform forced or compulsory labour.”
“On 10 February 2023, Thames Valley Police received a report that the victim in this case, a woman, was being held as a slave by Mugambe,” the police department explained.
“Mugambe paid for the victim’s plane ticket to the UK, picked her up from the airport, and thereafter the victim became Mugambe’s slave, carrying out unpaid work as a domestic maid and nanny,” the report continued.
Prosecutors had accused Mugambe of having “exploited and abused” her alleged victim, and prohibited her from seeking work elsewhere, as reported by The Washington Free Beacon.
Mugambe was previously a fellow at Columbia’s Institute for the Study of Human Rights in 2017; she led a project at Columbia that was called “Recovery Through Historical Dialogue for Women and Children in Northern Uganda.”
Mugambe’s project attempted “to address the issues of women in Northern Uganda who suffered severe human rights abuses, including rape, during the civil war that affected their community.”
Mugambe is scheduled to be sentenced in May.
“Lydia Mugambe is an extremely qualified lawyer, a Ugandan High Court Judge and a UN Criminal Tribunal Judge,” Ben Clark, a local official in Oxfordshire, stated, according to law enforcement. “Mugambe used her position of power as well as her knowledge of the law to take advantage of the victim, ensuring that she would become her unpaid domestic servant.”
Clark added that Mugambe tried to claim diplomatic immunity, but that it had been waived by the U.N. Secretary General’s office.
“After the offences had been reported to the police, Mugambe tried to evade justice by repeatedly claiming she had diplomatic immunity due to her status as a Ugandan High court Judge and, after her appointment as a United Nations Judge,” Clark explained. “Any immunity Mugambe may have enjoyed as a UN Judge has been waived by the Office of the United Nations Secretary General.”
According to her biography on the U.N. website, Mugambe “has published and presented on issues of human rights and children’s rights.”
Campus Reform has contacted Columbia University for comment. This article will be updated accordingly.
