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The board of KJF and Leiden University College (LUC) continue their collaboration and now, for the second time, have organised the Kavien’s Justice Award, for graduating students of LUC in 2026. The selection of the winner is be based on the student’s capstone (Bachelor’s thesis). LUC has selected five nominees and the expert jury appointed by KJF selected a winner from the nominees. The prize was awarded in an LUC ceremony, on July 4, 2026. The winner received a trophy, a certificate, and a prize of 2000€.

The award is a collaboration between the KJF and LUC. There were 5 nominees:

• Will Chan (World Politics): Belonging beyond the legal promise,
• Uriel Banchik Almasia (Culture, History and Society): When proof has to be built,
• Madelyn Smith (World Politics) : protest filmed in motion,
• Daphné Gelot (World Politics): Neutrality under pressure in Paris,
• Juliette Pariente (International Justice): environmental rights on a city map.

Read the summaries of their capstone in: What justice looks like up close  at the LUC website. The jury consisted of:

• Dr. Kendal Nezan (President of the Kurdish Institute in Paris),
• Dr. Bart Stapert (Senior Judge at Court of Appeals The Hague, former chair of Amnesty International Netherlands,
• Dr. Marieke de Hoon (Associate Professor Criminal Law at University of Amsterdam),
• Drs. Mr. Simon Minks (Senior advocate general in The Hague).

The 2025 Award winner is Daphné Gelot.

• Capstone: Neutrality under pressure in Paris
• Message: Food distribution can look apolitical until you watch how it is managed
• Summary: ‘Daphné studies the Armée du Salut’s Ramponeau site in Paris using participant observation, interviews, and document analysis, and finds that neutrality is not a stable organisational position. The thesis concludes that neutrality operates as a protective strategy and a public façade, but it comes with costs that surface on the ground: staff dissent goes unaddressed, discriminatory incidents are muted, and shared precarity stays largely invisible, even when volunteers and beneficiaries are navigating similar insecurity’

The board of KJF and Leiden University College (LUC) for the first time organised the 2025 Kavien’s Justice Award, for graduating students of LUC. The selection of the winner was based on the student’s capstone (Bachelor’s thesis). LUC has selected four nominees and the expert jury appointed by KJF selected a winner from the nominees. The prize was awarded in an LUC ceremony, on July 4, 2025. The winner Milena received a trophy, a certificate, and a prize of 2000€.

The award is a collaboration between the KJF and LUC. There were 4 nominees: Fabian Haug, Idil Tok, Antonia Till, and Milena de Roode Torres Georiadis (winner). Here is the: Jury Report (2025). The jury consisted of:

• Dr. Kendal Nezan (President of the Kurdish Institute in Paris),
• Dr. Bart Stapert (Senior Judge at Court of Appeals The Hague, former chair of Amnesty International Netherlands,
• Dr. Marieke de Hoon (Associate Professor Criminal Law at University of Amsterdam),
• Drs. Mr. Simon Minks (Senior advocate general in The Hague).

The 2025 Award winner is Milena de Roode Torres Georgiadis. A summary of her award-winning LUC Bachelor's thesis ‘When Culture Shields Land: Heritage Recognition as a Tool for the Territorial Protection of Quilombola Communities’, supervised by Bernardo Ribeiro de Almeida at Leiden University College, is available from this website. The research explores the role of cultural heritage for the protection of traditional communities’ lands. The summary can be found here:  Outline of thesis (in English).