Find out more about our team

Ambassadors

Our ambassadors are the heart of the network as they advise the rest of the team on the needs of their community and oversee all projects, assessing their effectiveness. Thanks to their input, Yazidi Legal Network is constantly improving its work according to the real needs of the community.

Tamara Babajan

Ghalia Jando

Our team

The Yazidi Legal Network currently functions with more than 35 dedicated people from all over the world working for the Yazidi cause. The network is coordinated from the Amsterdam Law Hub which is part of the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The overall coordination is in the hands of an executive director. An advisory board consisting of three international justice experts oversees all activities of the network. In 2021, the foundation YLN will install a board that will be responsible for the network’s operations. Since its establishment, the network has been run by an international group of academics, lawyers, students, journalists, ngo’s and international justice experts. Below you will find their names and activities for the network.

Our volunteers form an international team of students and professionals. With their diverse personal and professional background, they contribute to the development of all projects and to the expansion of the international network.

Board members

Eline de Vos

Secretary of the Board

Eline de Vos did her LLB degree at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. During this studies she followed a minor about international human rights law with a focus on equal treatment and minority protection. After this degree she did her LLM degree in Constitutional and Administrative law. She is mainly interested in human rights law. In 2019 she joined the Yazidi Legal Network as an ambassador. When the network became an official foundation, she became one of the board members. After obtaining her LLM degree she started working as a tutor at the Erasmus School of Law.

Akbal Mohamed

Treasurer

Adel Kheder Khalaf

Board member

Adel Khider came from a Yazidi family in Sinjar which is located in the Northwest of Iraq. He lives in Qadiya IDPs camp now.

He was awarded a diploma in the camp in 2015-2016, then he got a B.A in English Language, College of Education for Human Sciences, at the University of Mosul in 2019-2020. Moreover, since February 2021 he has been working for Yazda global organization as a team leader, translator, interviewer, and field researcher in the Duhok province, Kurdistan region.

Primarily, he is interested in helping survivors of genocides, international criminal law, and humanitarian deeds. He joined the Yazidi Legal Network as a Board Member in March 2022.

Worth mentioning, he is a survivor of the genocidal campaign waged by ISIL against Yazidis in Sinjar in 2014.

Nadia Grant

Board member

Nadia is a lawyer specialised in public international law and working in the humanitarian sector. With a particular interest in justice and accountability, Nadia has conducted research in the fields of international criminal law and international humanitarian law and has experience within the non-profit sector across a variety of jurisdictions.

Currently working in the field of compliance and risk management in an international medical-humanitarian organisation, in addition to her experience in international law Nadia brings to the Board of the Yazidi Legal Network an insight into the oversight and management of international organisations.

Nadia holds an LL.M. in International Law and Languages from Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and an LL.B. (Honours) Law and Spanish from the University of Glasgow, United Kingdom.

What do you do?

Take a minute to write an introduction that is short, sweet, and to the point. If you sell something, use this space to describe it in detail and tell us why we should make a purchase. Tap into your creativity. You’ve got this.

Sign up

Advisors

Alan Frank

Senior Analyst

Alan is responsible for the design and evolution of the General Database and leads the volunteer training curriculum. Alan has a PhD in Experimental Psychology from Indiana University and is a Certified Information Professional (AIIM.ORG). He leads a team of YLN Leadership and Senior Staff that establishes the goals, objectives for the data analysis, and the policies that govern access to the General Database. He also negotiates with potential partners to expand the range of articles, reports and interviews included in the database. Alan considers himself retired, after a 40 year career involving the analysis of problems and the design tools that support human decision making. He is extremely happy to be able to use his skills and experiences to support the Yazidi Legal Network.

Emmanuel Didier

Senior Legal Advisor

Emmanuel is a specialist of comparative law and international law. He is a Barrister and Solicitor in the Bar of Ontario. He has also been a member of the Bars of New York, Québec and New Brunswick. He has been a Professor of Law and a Lecturer in several universities and at the Bar of Paris. He has been a refugee judge and a First Secretary of the International Court of Justice. He has also exercised law in private practice for poor immigrant women, as well as in public practice for the government of Canada in Public and Private International Law as well as Native Law with the Federal Court of Appeal, Justice Canada and Foreign Affairs Canada. He is a member of the Board of Project Abraham in Toronto. He created the Bibliography on the Yazidis and is now working with the YLN to expand it into a database to document the crimes committed against Yazidis and other minorities by ISIS, and support the adaptation and healing of those communities.

Jela Keyany

Legal Advisor

Coordinators

Hope Rikkelman

Co-founder and General Director

Coming from a long line of family involvement in the justice sector, Hope has a broad and multidisciplinary knowledge of international public, criminal law and humanitarian law. She has a specific interest in intelligence, and open source investigations with an emphasis on Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Through her affiliation at the Nuhanovic Foundation; War Reparations Centre of the University of Amsterdam she co-founded Syria Legal Network-NL and YLN. Her projects focus on justice and accountability, universal jurisdiction and other forms of reparations for victims of war crimes. Besides leading Yazidi Legal Network she also works as Project manager at Pro Bono Connect

Denise Kohi

Project Coordinator

Denise is a project manager and a coordinator of the General Database. She conducts legal research regarding the crimes committed against the Yazidi, as well as coordinating the General Database team consisting of more than 15 people. Denise successfully did her LLB in European Law at the University of Maastricht. Following that, she did her LLM in International and Transnational Criminal Law at the University of Amsterdam. Denise is well-versed in International and Comparative Law, and she sees a career in the field of battling conflict-related sexual violence as her greatest calling.

Advisory board

Our advisory board, comprising of experts with different backgrounds, advises Yazidi Legal Network on organisational, legal and other matters. They ensure that Yazidi Legal Network complies with all rules and expectations and meet regularly with the founders and the team to advance their recommendations.

Peter Ten Hove

Expert on the Common European Asylum System and Forced Migration. He worked as operational manager of the Dutch War Crimes Unit within the Immigration Service. He is a former national programme manager for establishing an interdepartmental strategy to intensify national criminal investigations and prosecutions for core international crimes. Initiator of the EASO Exclusion Network and owner and founder of Gather4Humanity.

Martine van Trigt

Martine van Trigt is Funding Advisor at the Leiden Law School (as per December 2021). Her expertise comprises writing and editing of research proposals in the field of (international) law, targeting funding opportunities, and advice and support regarding (international) grant applications. Martine previously worked at the T.M.C. Asser Instituut and the Amsterdam Law School. She obtained an MA in European Studies (1998) and an MA in Holocaust and Genocide Studies (2013, cum laude), both from the University of Amsterdam.

Frederiek De Vlaming

Frederiek de Vlaming is the director of the Nuhanovic Foundation and senior researcher in international criminal law at the Law Faculty of the University of Amsterdam where she is also the head of the Centre for War Reparations. She is co-founder of Lawyers for Lawyers, Syria Legal Network-NL and Turkey Legal Network. She worked for UNHCR, Amnesty International and international development agencies in different parts of the world.

Catherine van Kampen

Catherine has extensive commitment to pro bono legal work with immigrants, refugees and women and children impacted by violence. Founding Board Member of Free A Girl USA (headquartered in the Netherlands) and Bring Hope Humanitarian Foundation USA (headquartered in Sweden) Member of the Advisory Board for the National Center for Girls Leadership.