Emmah Wabuke

Emmah Khisa Senge Wabuke is a human rights lawyer and scholar whose work explores the intersections of gender, violent extremism, and armed conflict. Her research examines how human rights frameworks conceptualize victimhood, interrogating the imprecise and often exclusionary nature of existing approaches and their consequences for recognition, protection, and justice. By situating lived experiences within broader legal and theoretical debates, she seeks to expand understandings of victimhood and explore how the practice of human rights may be theorized in more inclusive and responsive ways.

She previously served as a long-term consultant at the Initiative for Strategic Litigation in Africa (ISLA), where she managed the capacity strengthening and knowledge production priority areas. In this role, she developed and led initiatives to strengthen legal capacity across the continent and contributed to knowledge resources that advanced strategic litigation as a tool for systemic change. This work reflected her commitment to linking rigorous analysis with meaningful advocacy.

Her current interests span feminist legal theory, transitional justice, and human rights accountability, with a particular focus on how silences and ambiguities in law shape the treatment of victims in contexts of conflict and extremism. Through her scholarship and professional engagements, Emmah continues to interrogate the theoretical foundations of human rights while working towards frameworks that are attentive to complexity and responsive to lived realities.