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York 2010 International Conference

>> About the Participants

 

Kees (Cornelis) Wouters

Senior Refugee Law Advisor, Division of International Protection (DIP), UNHCR, Geneva, Switzerland

 

Kees Wouters is a senior refugee law advisor at the Division of International Protection of UNHCR in Geneva.  In the past Kees Wouters has worked as a researcher and lecturer at the Institute of Immigration Law at Leiden Law School, where in April 2009 he obtained his dotoral (PhD) degree with his thesis on International Legal Standards for the Protection from Refoulement. He was also a member of the sub-Committee on Asylum and Refugee Law of the Permanent Committee of Experts on International Immigration, Refugee and Criminal Law (Meijers Committee) and has worked for various non-governmental organisations in the Netherlands, such as Amnesty International and the Dutch Council for Refugees. He has also worked in Asia as a staff member and lecturer at the Office of Human Rights Studies and Social Development of Mahidol University in Thailand (2000-2004) and as a lawyer for the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE). In 2005 he joined COHRE where he was responsible for setting up and managing the national office of COHRE in Sri Lanka. In 2007 and 2008 he worked as a consultant and legal officer for COHRE’s Asia and Pacific Programme and was involved in various projects concerning housing, land and property restitution for refugees and displaced persons.