Member of the Grievance Committee on Youth care

2016-present
8 other municipalities (start of the Committee was in March 2016)

Expert of the European Union (Brussels)

May 2016-December 2017
Freelance work for the DG Justice & Consumers: evaluating proposals to the EU on children’s rights, work against domestic violence and child abuse, treatment of trauma.

Senior psychologist, trainer postmaster health psychology

• July 2018 – present
  RIO care, the Hague (work with children with ADHD, Autism Spectrum Symptoms). In house training of young psychologists
• June 2017-July 2018
  De Juttters child psychiatric clinic, the Hague, Fact team
• April 2016 – June 2017
  Supervising young psychologists, being the on the job trainer for the postmaster in health psychology at Trubendorffer (addiction) clinic in Tilburg
• November 2015-March 2016
  Mentaal Beter, Psychology and Psychotherapy Practice, Tilburg, intakes and treatment
• February 2016-August 30 2016
  Health psychologist at COLK Centre for the treatment of conversion/psycho-somatic problems, Gorinchem, the Netherlands

Project Leader November 2013-December 2016

NIDOS in the Netherlands

• Improved interagency cooperation fighting child trafficking.
• Regular meetings with police, coordinating prosecutor, mental health authorities, management of safe houses, immigration authorities.
• European Refugee Fund subsidised the project.

Director/ Supervisor/ Trainer January 2007-April 2013

Bouman GGZ (Mental Health Service), Rotterdam

• Developed services for youth with addiction problems
• Established a network of clinics and outpatient clinics
• supervisor/trainer for psychologists.
• In charge of the postmaster health psychology training.

Forensic Psychologist/ Independent Expert December 2005-January 2016

Dutch Courts, supervised by the Netherlands Institute for Forensic Psychiatry and Psychology (NIFP)

• Sworn in by the court in the Hague on December 1, 2005.
• Appointed by prosecutors or investigating-judges in Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht Breda and Den Bosch.

Senior Advisor/Lecturer May 2006-2010
Van Montfoort Research and Consultancy
Interdisciplinary Institute of the University of Amsterdam (lecturing on human rights of children)

First General Secretary March 2004-May 2005
Altus Global Alliance for Police Reform and Justice reform, The Hague

• Start of the International Secretariat;
• Managing international cooperation between the members in the Alliance;
• Developing projects on safety and justice;
• Representing the Alliance with organisations in Europe
• Organising an international visitation-committee at the ICC to evaluate the work of the prosecutor
• Visiting projects in the Punjap (India), Enugu (Nigeria), Santiago (Chile) and oversight projects of the police in Russia and Brazil;

Executive Director 1987-2004
Defence for Children International Israel
The organisation tried to improve the situation of Israeli and Palestinian minors, through setting up projects and lobby, founding fieldwork by lawyers of walk-in-centres for legal advise. Legal aid was given in the juvenile -district -and military courts. Petitions to the Supreme Court, to prohibit interrogation at night and enabling the use of Arabic to request child allowance from the National Insurance Institute.

• coordinating work of 7 lawyers
• Organising together with Palestinian Lawyers for Human Rights in Gaza a course to introduce Palestinian lawyers to juvenile justice issues;
• Representing together with the Palestinian branch of DCI minors accused of ‘security offences’;
• Coordinating the NGO (Alternative) Report to the CRC Committee
• Organised an International Conference on children’s rights and religion, in Nazareth, with one of the main speakers Mr. Abdelfattah Amor from Tunisia, the UN Special rapporteur on Freedom of Religion and Belief

President of the International Executive Council of DCI in Geneva 1987-2004

• Developing with the other members the policy of the International Executive Council;
• Supervising the work of the NGO Group for the Convention on the Rights of the Child (now split of from DCI and called Child Rights Connect);
• Starting projects and obtaining subsidy in Albania, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Columbia, Ghana, Macedonia, Uganda and Sri Lanka;
• Manage the office of the secretariat and the staff, when the Secretary General was fired
• Representing DCI in New York (as NGO delegate) to the UNGASS about children, visiting Sierra Leone in the civil war and visiting projects in Kumasi (Ghana);
• several short speeches at the UN

1989-2004 Orr Shalom treatment homes for emotionally disturbed children in Israel.

1982-1988 Founder and honorary secretary of the Janusz Korczak Foundation in the Netherlands.

1978-1985 Coordinator of the board of the Therapeutic Foster Family Scheme in Rotterdam (TGV-Rotterdam).

1974-1976 Stichting Ortho-Pedagogisch Centrum, Noord – Holland (organization for the mentally handicapped).

EDUCATION & TRAINING FOR PROFESSIONAL LICENSE

British Psychological Society 2017
Chartered member (CPsychol)

Court Expert for Criminal Law, Adults, Psychology 2011-2016
Netherlands Register of Independent Court Experts (NRGD)
Registration Number: NRGD.1010.114

EU – UN Pilot Specialization Course 2006
UN Pilot Specialization Course Child Protection, Monitoring and Rehabilitation, held at the Austrian Study Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution (ASPR) Stadtschlaining/Burg, Austria.

Health Psychologist 2004
NIP/NVO Joint Committee (Dutch Association of Psychologists and the Netherlands Association of Pedagogues)/ Ministry of Health
Health Psychologist Registration Number: 99063337825

Doctor of Social Sciences (PhD) 1991
University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Thesis The Rights of the Child and the Changing Image of Childhood

Doctorandus (Post-Graduate) Degree in Education 1985
University of Amsterdam
Major: Ortho-pedagogics (combination of special education and developmental psychology).Minor: Child psychiatry & History of education and psychology

Diploma in Social Work 1972
Catholic School of Social Work, Amsterdam

BOARD MEMBERSHIPS

2014-2016
of the Vereniging van Pro Justitia rapporteurs (VVR) forensic psychiatrists and forensic psychologists working for the courts

2012-Present
of the Foundation Therapeutic Help for Children (THK) Rotterdam (supporting children in foster family care).

2012-2015
of the Section Addiction Psychology and Health Psychology of the Netherlands Institute of Psychologists (NIP).

2012-2017
of the Council of Alumni of the Faculty of Educational Sciences of the University of Amsterdam.

2008-2014
of the Children’s Rights Centre (CCRA) of the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands

1992-2004
Founder and Board Member of the Children’s Rights Publications Foundation which was established to launch and administer the International Journal of Children’s Rights (now with Brill Academic Publishers).

1998-2003
Representative of DCI in the Steering Committee of the Coalition Against the Use of Child-Soldiers. Participation in meetings in Kenya organized by UNICEF on re-integration of child-soldiers. Participation in meetings in London of the Steering Committee with Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch etc.

1997-2002
President of the International Executive Council of DCI, Geneva
Member of the International Executive Council of DCI,Geneva

1989-2004
Orr Shalom treatment homes for emotionally disturbed children in Israel.

1982-1988
Founder and honorary secretary of the Janusz Korczak Foundation in the Netherlands.

1978-1985
Coordinator of the board and representative in the Federatie Therapeutische Gezinsverpleging (Federation Therapeutic Foster Family Care Organizations)

1974-1976
Stichting Ortho-Pedagogisch Centrum, Noord-Holland (organization for the mentally handicapped) and Weerklank (Foundation for deaf mentally retarded children)

1971-1993
Founder and Board member of the Stichting Browndale Nederland (small therapeutic group homes for emotionally disturbed children).

SCHOLARSHIPS

1987-1988
Fulbright Lecturer and Research Fellow at Columbia University in New York, USA;

1987
Visiting Fellow of the Institute of Education of the University of London, U.K;

1985
Travel grant from the British Council to visit British facilities for school drop-outs.
Goethe Institute travel grant to visit institutions for school drop-outs in Berlin (Germany).

1982
Z.W.O. (Dutch organization promoting research, now called NWO) grant to collect oral history material about the Polish Educator, Janusz Korczak.

1981
Travel grant from the Dutch Ministry of Social Welfare for a lecture at the American Orthpsychiatric Association meeting in Toronto, Canada.

SPECIAL FUNCTIONS

• Convener (together with Prof. Philip Jaffé from Geneva, Switzerland) of the International Interdisciplinary Working group of Parents with Mental Disorders (including Addiction) and the Rights of their Children, to be held on April 15, 2012 in Rotterdam.
• October 16, 2012. Invited Speech at the International Conference of ISAM (International Society of Addiction Medicine) in Geneva on Children’s rights from mount Salѐve, the CRC and (the lack of attention for) drugs.
• 2003 Acceptance speech at the ceremony for DCI receiving the Geuzenpenning – human rights prize;
• 2003 speaker at the Born into conflict Conference in Vienna, Austria.
• 2000: co-chair with dr. Sami Adwan from Bethlehem University, at the International conference on Children’s Rights and Religions, Nazareth;
• Opening an exhibition together with a Palestinian psychologist: drawings from children from conflict areas in the presence of H.M. Queen Fabiola of Belgium, Laken/Brussels.
• Participation in the Second International Working Group on the Ideologies of Children’s Rights, 14-18 May 1994, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.
• Convener of the First International Interdisciplinary Working Group on Ideologies of Children’s Rights (in Haifa and Jerusalem, 1991).

MEMBERSHIPS OF PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS

• Nederlands Instituut van Psychologen, NIP (Psychological Society of the Netherlands)
• Nederlandse Vereniging van Pedagogen en Onderwijskundigen (Dutch Association of Educators, NVO)
• British Psychological Society (Chartered Member) CPsychol.