Jaap E. Doek is emeritus professor of Law (Family and Juvenile Law) at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam (since July 2004) . He has been the Dean of the Law Faculty at the Vrije Universiteit (1988 -1992). From 1998 - 2003 he was professor of Juvenile law at the University of Leiden. 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).

He is currently as an advisor/consultant involved in among others activities of the Special Representative of the Secretary General of the UN on Children and Armed Conflict, the regional office of UNICEF for East and Southern Africa, a number of UNICEF country offices and some governments of States Parties to the CRC.

Prof. Doek has been founding member of the International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (ISPCAN) and board member 1976-1992 (President 1982-1984 and Vice President for developing countries 1984-1992) and in that capacity involved in the establishment of the African Network for Prevention and Protection of Child Abuse and Neglect (ANPPCAN). He was also involved in the creation of Defence for Children International (DCI; 1979) and established the Dutch Section of this organisation (1984). He has been a member of an ISPCAN/DCI working group on Child Labour which conducted a large study on Child Labour (1994-1997).
He was a member of the Board of the International Association of Juvenile and Family Court Magistrates 1982-1986)