The Project Team

From INTERVICT:

Suzan van der Aa (Tilburg, The Netherlands, 1982) studied criminal law at Tilburg University after which she started working as a PhD candidate for the International Victimology Institute Tilburg (INTERVICT). This resulted in her PhD thesis: Stalking in the Netherlands. Nature and prevalence of the problem and the effectiveness of anti-stalking measures (2010). After defending the thesis, she was offered a position as an assistant professor at INTERVICT. In this capacity she is responsible for several Master courses and for conducting research activities relating to victims and victims’ rights in the national and international context, both as a researcher and a project leader. She has published international peer.reviewed articles on various topics, such as stalking, rape, domestic violence, violence against women, the European Protection Order and the EU Framework Decision on the Standing of Victims in Criminal Proceedings. Currently she is leading the (Daphne III sponsored) POEMS project on protection order legislation in the EU Member States. For more information, see: https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/webwijs/show/s.vdraa.htm.

Lorena P. A. Sosa studied Law in Universidad Nacional de Córdoba (UNC), Argentina. She hold a Master’s degree in Public International Law and Human Rights from the University of Tilburg, the Netherlands. In 2009 she joined the International Victimology Institute Tilburg (INTERVICT) as a PhD researcher. Since then she has participated in a number of European Union co-funded projects, all focusing on violence against women. In addiction, she has been a lecturer to the Master of Science in Victimology and Criminal Justice and guest seminars to th Master of European and International Public Law, both at Tilburg University. Her PhD dissertation focuses on the responsibility of States under international human rights law to address violence against women from an intersectional perspective.

Other team members:

  • Felix Ndahinda, LL.M. : https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/webwijs/show/f.ndahinda.htm

 From APAV:

Ana Ferreira is a project officer at the Portuguese Association for Victim Support (APAV). With a LL.B by the Faculty of Law of the University of Lisbon and a post-graduation diploma in Human Rights from the University of Coimbra, Ana has worked in APAV for the last four years, mostly working in developing and managing several European wide projects co-funded by the European Commission. Ana has lately been involved in APAV’s endeavors to build strong and coherent proposals for the implementation of both the Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (Istambul Convention) and the Directive 2012/29/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 25 October 2012 establishing minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (Victims’ Directive).

Other team members:

  • Frederico Marques
  • Joana Menezes

From the University of Helsinki:

Johanna Niemi (f. Niemi-Kiesiläinen), professor of procedural law, University of Turku, and professor of gender studies in law, University of Helsinki, LLD. Niemi has worked as a professor at Umeå University in Sweden and is a visiting professor at Lund University, Sweden. Fullbright scholar at the University of Wisconsin, Madison Law School 1997 – 1998. She has published on criminal procedure, violence against women and insolvency law. She has been coeditor of several books, including Responsible Selves. Women in the Nordic Legal Culture, Ashgate, 2001 and Nordic Equality at a Crossroads. Feminist Legal Studies Coping with Difference, Ashgate, 2004. In her work on law and gender Niemi has focused on criminal law and procedure and the construction of gender in legal discourses. Her book Criminal Law Procedure and Violence in Intimate Relationship was published as a book in Finnish in 2004. She has also analysed the liberal undertone of the Finnish rape law in several articles. In 2013 she made with LLM Jussi Aaltonen an evaluation of the Finnish sex purchase ban for the Ministry of Justice. Niemi is also member of the Scientific Committee of FRA, European Union Fundamental Rights Agency.

Other team members:

  • Sini Majlander
  • Ida Lindfors

From the Seconda Università degli Study di Napoli:

Anna Constanza Baldry, associate professor since 2003, employed by the second University of Naples at the Department of Psychology, is a PhD graduated in Psychology and Criminology. She has been working for NGOs dealing with violence against women since 1994 serving as an expert witness, as a counsellor, in risk assessment and as a project manager. She has coordinated EU and governmental projects of applied social psychology and criminology with special emphasis on women victim of violence. For 20 years she has been training police forces, social workers, judicial practitioners and educators and teachers. She has working experience, both as a trainer and as a researcher, in many countries from which Australia, Afghanistan and OPT (Occupied Palestinian Territories). She has published over 50 articles in prestigious scientific journals, book chapters and monographs in many of her research fields including gender roles stereotypes, violence against women, bullying and cyberbullying, juvenile delinquency, risk factors of antisocial behaviours and risk assessment and social identification with rule of law principles, honour based attitudes and their influence on social norms and behaviours, inter and intra-transmission of violence in family context, judicial socio-psychological impact on victims of violence.

Other team members:

  • Lotte de Geus MSc.