Johan Heymans

Johan Heymans obtained his bachelor’s degree in law from Namur University in 2010 and his master’s degree from Leuven and Tilburg in 2012. He then took a master of laws (LL.M.) in international and US criminal law at New York University and attended an internship in the same city at the department of international criminal law of the International Center for Transitional Justice. He later worked in Phnom Penh for the prosecutor’s office at the Khmer Rouge Tribunal and was also a guest lecturer in international criminal law at the Royal University of Law and Economics in Cambodia.

With this background, Johan Heymans started his internship as a lawyer at Van Steenbrugge Advocaten in 2014. He focuses exclusively on  and human rights. At the same time, he has been a teaching assistant in criminal procedure at the Law Faculty of the Antwerp University since 2015. He also gives guest lectures at Ghent University and at the Belgian Institute for Judicial Training.

Since March 2016 Johan Heymans has been active in the  (the Human Rights League in Dutch-speaking Belgium): he has been elected to the General Assembly and the League Council, one of the governing bodies, and has already served as the League’s legal counsel on several occasions. Johan Heymans is also active as a human rights expert at the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE) and at Fair Trials.

With his experience outside the legal profession, he is able to approach his profession from a broad perspective.