Tell us about your work

I work in the Amsterdam Law Hub where the Nuhanovic Foundation has a nice office. We work with a team of lawyers and law students from different parts of the world which is very stimulating. At this moment we work with lawyers from Ukraine on a project that supports the Ukraine community in the Netherlands to register damages that are the result of the Russian aggression. Hopefully people will get compensation for all the losses they have suffered. It is a complicated bureaucratic process that requires legal assistance and we intend to provide this with a network of lawyer from Ukraine that our foundation set up last year. In the context of litigation, our foundation assists victims from war hit in the world if they want to start legal proceedings against persons or corporations for their complicity in war crimes. For example we support Palestinians who take their case against the Israeli Defense Forces for war crimes, we also support such cases against Dutch companies who are active in the West Bank which is against international law. And then we work with victims of breaches of humanitarian law by the Dutch military during its international military interventions, such as in Afghanistan or Iraq.

What is your motivation?

I think the law is there for EVERYBODY, including victims of war crimes. International law aims to protect civilians who suffer from war crimes but it is very difficult if not impossible to obtain redress or compensation so the only venue to seek reparations is the court. But legal proceedings are complex, take long and cost a lot. So it is a long road for people who want the truth or their harm repaired. 

Your vision

War is a very undemocratic phenomenon and as they say: the first victim on the battlefield is the truth. Lawyers should play a role in making the practice of war transparent. We need to know what happens during war, what are the forces behind it and what civilians can do and where they can go  when their rights are violated. Lawyers should and can play a big role here. This part of international law is largely unexplored and it should be further developed in order to save lives. So that justice is not an empty word.

Supporting factors

It is the people with whom we work and for whom we work, the organizations and private persons who sponsor our organization. The collaboration with experts and the academic world is important, they give us the tools that contribute to a better protection of civilians during war.