Our team

Mr. Elsa van de Loo is an attorney at PILP. She provides legal advice to allies, acts as a lawyer in various proceedings, and plays an important role in drafting legal documents and doing additional legal research.

Van de Loo is an expert on human rights, equal treatment and non-discrimination. She previously worked as an independent social lawyer assisting individuals in cases involving tenancy law, education law and fundamental rights. Before that, she was, among other things, a lawyer and policy advisor at the Human Rights Board.

In addition to her role as a lawyer, Ms. Van de Loo is a deputy member of the Human Rights Board where she is part of the judicial role of the Board. She is also a member of the Childcare Allowance Objections Advisory Committee and provides training courses on diversity and inclusion.

Soraya el Aaddaoui is an administrative assistant at PILP. In this position, she supports the team in the daily organization and contributes to the smooth running of administrative processes within the foundation.

In addition to her work at PILP, Soraya is active as a legal advisor at the Women’s Legal Advice Center, where she offers women accessible legal advice in areas such as family law, immigration law and social security. She is also a project supporter for various initiatives working for equal rights and social justice.

Soraya combines her organizational skills with her legal knowledge and social commitment. She dedicates herself with conviction to an accessible constitutional state in which everyone is given equal opportunities.

Leila Idaassi is a student intern at PILP. Leila is currently pursuing a double major in administrative law and immigration law at the Free University of Amsterdam.

She previously worked voluntarily as a legal advisor at the Vrouwenrechtswinkel Amsterdam and did an internship at Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland. In addition to her internship at PILP, she is active as vice president and advocacy board member at Muslim student association svMUSA, where she advocates for prayer spaces, inclusive education and addressing Islamophobia on campus.

Ms. Nadia Bosma is Coordinator of Operations & Projects at PILP. In this role, she deals with the general operations of PILP, with all internal and external communications, event planning and organizational matters within PILP. In addition, she deals with the day-to-day operations of the operations team.

Before starting her current position at PILP, Nadia worked at PILP as a work-study student and she has been working as an attorney within personal and family law. She also completed a legal master’s degree in criminal law at the Free University

mr. Jelle Klaas is executive director and human rights lawyer at PILP. He is one of the founders of PILP and has years of experience in strategic litigation for human rights in the Netherlands.

Mr. Klaas provides legal advice to clients and allies, acts as an advocate in various proceedings and is partly responsible for PILP’s spokesmanship and external representation.

Within PILP, Mr. Klaas specializes particularly in civil procedural law, demonstration law, housing policy, anti-discrimination cases and strategic litigation in general.

Mr. Klaas previously worked for 15 years as a social lawyer for the Fischer Group, where, among other things, he collaborated on proceedings concerning the right to “bed, bath and bread” for undocumented persons.

Ms. Laura Wennekes is operational director at PILP. In this role she is responsible for external relations, fundraising and the general operations of PILP. She also identifies and coordinates (new) projects and events that fit PILP’s procedures.

Prior to joining PILP, Laura worked at Allen&Overy, Natuurmonumenten and !Woon Foundation. She also completed a legal master’s degree in international security at the Free University of Amsterdam.

Besides her work, Laura is active as treasurer at Progressief Woerden.

Mr. Merel Hendrickx is a lawyer at PILP. She provides legal advice to allies, acts as a lawyer in various strategic procedures.

Within PILP Merel specializes in collective and public interest actions, demonstration law, children’s right to water, (ethnic) profiling and anti-discrimination. Before she started at PILP, Merel was, among other things, involved as a trainee in the appeal in the Urgenda case against the State.

Mr. Rosa Beets is a lawyer at PILP. She provides legal advice to allies, acts as a lawyer in various strategic proceedings.

Within PILP, Rosa specializes in housing law, Islamophobia cases and the right to protest.

Previously, Rosa worked as a paralegal at the law firm Prakken d’Oliveira Human Rights Lawyers, and gained experience in strategic litigation at the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR) in Berlin. There she focused particularly on corporate and human rights litigation.

mr. Dr. Nawal Mustafa works as a strategic legal advisor at PILP. She is an expert on anti-racism, Islamophobia, feminism and decolonial and postcolonial theory.

Nawal received her PhD on the topic of migration and the regulation of intimacy and is also currently working as a postdoctoral researcher at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Previously, Nawal gained experiences at Amnesty International, Humanity in Action and Critical Mass. In 2018, together with three other activists based in the Netherlands, Nawal started SPEAK, a platform for Muslim women and their struggle against racism, Islamophobia and sexism.

Nawal has extensive experience in community organizing and movement building from an intersectional and decolonial perspective.