Career
He is a professor of law at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, where he was the Dean of the Law Faculty from 1988 to 1992. He is a deputy justice in the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam and he was a juvenile court judge in the district court of Alkmaar and the Hague (1978-1985). He was elected to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child in February 1999 and, from May 2001 to the end of his mandate in February 2007, served as its Chairperson.
He was involved in the creation of Defence for Children International (DCI) in 1979 and the Dutch section of this organisation (1984).
In 1999-2000 he was the president of the European Law Faculties Association (ELFA). In 1993 he was a visiting scholar at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, District of Columbia, and at the University of Michigan Law School in Ann Arbor.
In January to May 1999 he was a visiting professor at the Northwestern University School of Law in Chicago. He has published numerous books and articles on various topics in the area of children"s rights and family law in national and international journals.
