Sarah Kihika Kasande is a doctoral researcher at the Human Rights Center at Ghent University, 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.
