Dr. Thijs Bouwknegt

Biography

Thijs Bouwknegt is Senior Researcher at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust, and Genocide Studies. He is Scientific Project Leader of the research into Dutch involvement in Afghanistan (2001-2021). He is also part of the Master programme "Holocaust and Genocide Studies" (i.c.w. University of Amsterdam). His academic research further focuses on the modern and recent history of mass atrocities and the social and legal handling of mass violence ("transitional justice"). His regional focus is mainly on Africa.

Previously, Thijs Bouwknegt worked as a journalist and as a trial observer at war and genocide trials at various international tribunals (Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Lebanon), the International Criminal Court (ICC), and in Bosnia, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Before that (between 2002 and 2007), he was a researcher at Amnesty International, the United Nations Rwanda Tribunal and the ICC.