Jaap E. Doek is emeritus professor of Law (Family and Juvenile Law) at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (since July 2004). Currently he is a deputy justice in the Court of Appeal of Amsterdam and he has been a juvenile court judge in the district court of Alkmaar and the Hague (1978-1985).

He has been a member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (1999 - 2007) and a chairperson of that Committee (2001-2007).He is the chairperson of Aflatoun, Child Savings International (since Dec. 2006), an International NGO promoting Social and Financial Education for Children (Amsterdam), a member of the Advisory Committee of the Innocenti Research Centre of UNICEF in Florence, a member of the Board of Trustees of the African Child Policy Forum (Ethiopia) and a member of the expert committee for the selection of candidates for the Annual Children's Peace Prize (initiative of KidsRights, The Netherlands).