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Anita Witlox and Paul Lips have spent their whole lives investigating war crimes and helping to obtain justice for victims. Back in the spring they set up a Named Fund whereby students from Amsterdam Law School can help with special projects run by the Nuhanovic Foundation.

The fund set up by Witlox and Lips is called the Fund for Redress for International Crimes (Fonds voor Rechtsherstel bij Internationale Misdrijven). It supports the Nuhanovic Foundation, which helps victims of war establish the legal responsibility for war crimes and obtain compensation for the damage incurred. It does this, among other things, by setting up legal networks, comprising of lawyers from conflict-affected countries who are residing in the Netherlands as refugees. The Nuhanovic Foundation was set up in 2011 by UvA Professor of War Reparations Liesbeth Zegveld and works closely with Amsterdam Law School and the Amsterdam Law Hub, a breeding ground for innovation in the field of social legal services. 

Thanks to the fund set up by Witlox and Lips, three UvA students have now set up the Ukraine Legal Network for victims of the war in Ukraine. Like the Yezidi Legal Network and the Syria Legal Network, this network aims to document war crimes from a legal perspective and to bring the perpetrators to justice. 

A network of this kind also offers the opportunity to bring people together on an individual level. The Amsterdam University Fund therefore put the Nuhanovic Foundation in touch with Ahmad Jawad Saleh – a refugee from Afghanistan currently in the process of graduating from the UvA, with support from the University Fund. Saleh is writing a thesis on the responsibility of international coalitions for war crimes. This topic fits perfectly with the work of the Nuhanovic Foundation. He has since become involved with the Ukrainian Legal Network. In this way, the Amsterdam University Fund, its donors and academics from different generations are working together towards a fairer society.