Esme Chombo

Esme Jynet Chombo is a Malawian High Court Magistrate and the current Malawian Ambassador to the United States. She is a champion of women's rights and human rights. She gained attention internationally for ruling against Madonna's second adoption, which opened an international debate about the rights of children, celebrity adoptions and child trafficking in international adoption.

Career
She started her college career in Sierra Leone in 1982 at Fourah Bay College (University of Sierra Leone) where she received a Bachelors of Arts degree in 1986. At the same time she was attending law school at the University of Malawi (Chancellor College), where she graduated in 1986. She joined Malawi's judiciary in 1986 as a Resident Magistrate and later worked as the Chief Magistrate where she oversaw magistrates in the lower courts in the country's Northern Region.

In 1995, she joined the private sector in Malawi, working for the Press Group of Companies. By 1999, she went to England to receive her master's degree in Strategic Management at the University of Derby and graduated in 2001. In 2003, she was appointed as a Judge of the High Court in Malawi where she oversaw all subordinate courts in civil, criminal, administrative, and industrial relations matters.

Justice Chombo presided over some high-profile cases in the country. She was the presiding judge over pop star Madonna's second adoption case for her daughter Chifundo. Chombo denied Madonna the right to adopt a child on the basis of residency clauses in Malawi's adoption laws. Her verdict caused international debate over the rights of children. She later served as the Chairperson of the Malawi Law Commission's Special Law Commission on the Review of the Adoption of Children Act from 2009 – 2012.

She was the founding President of Malawi's Chapter of the International Association of Women Judges, Women Judges Association of Malawi in 2011. She has served on the board of numerous organizations. She worked as a High Court Justice until being appointed as Malawi's ambassador to the U.S. in 2021.

Personal life
She has six children.

Philanthropy
She is an honorary board member of the non-profit group Age Africa.