Jaap Doek

Jaap E. Doek is a professor of family and juvenile law at Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, Netherlands. He served as dean of the law faculty from 1988-92. Currently, he is a deputy justice in the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam, and previously was a juvenile court judge in the district court of Alkmaar and The Hague.

He was elected as a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in 1999, and has chaired the committee since 2001.

Professor Doek is a founding member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN). He was a board member from 1976-92 and served as president from 1982-84. Earlier, as vice president for developing countries, he helped establish the African Network for Prevention and Protection of Child Abuse and Neglect. He was also involved in the creation of Defence for Children International (DCI) in 1979 and the Dutch section of this organization in 1984. In addition, he later served on an ISPCAN/DCI working group that conducted a large study on child labor (1994-97). He also was a member of the board of the International Association of Juvenile and Family Court Magistrates (1982-86).

In 1993, Professor Doek he was a visiting scholar at Georgetown University Law School in Washington, D.C., and at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor. In the spring of 1999, he was a visiting professor at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. He served as president of the European Law Faculties Association in 1999-2000.

Professor Doek has published numerous books and articles on various topics in the area of children's rights and family law in both national (Dutch) and international (English) journals.