Peter ten Hove

Founder
"I firmly believe that all of us should have the opportunity to pursue our dreams and destination in absence of fear and forced displacement".

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BACKGROUND

Gather4Humanity has been established upon my personal experiences, observations, and beliefs.

From early childhood all through my studies and career I have been interested in international relations,

human rights and peaceful conflict resolution.

As a migration professional for 25 years, I have witnessed, heard, felt and seen the impact that war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide have on victims, witnessess, their respective families and on entire societies.

As a migration professional I have been fortunate to render safe haven to victims seeking justice, while on the other hand denying safe haven for perpetrators that were fleeing justice.

In the 1990s, I was a pioneer in detecting, investigating, and assessing asylum applications of alleged war criminals from conflicts in Sierra Leone, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Rwanda. During this period, the first ad hoc tribunals were established in The Hague, a city renowned for peace, justice, and security.

In 2005, I became the operational manager of the Dutch specialist war crimes / exclusion unit. A team of 25 specialists responsible for detecting, investigating, and assessing asylum and migration applications of alleged war criminals. As such I have been involved in many high-profile cases, in finding resolutions and innovative approaches for key challenges and played a significant role in national and international capacity building, as evidenced by the Human Rights Watch publication "The Long Arm of Justice, Lessons from Specialized War Crimes Units in France, Germany, and The Netherlands."

In all, I spend over 10 years in spearheading new (inter)national and multidisciplinary approaches aimed at optimizing the identification of and the administrative responses to migrants responsible for core international crimes:

2009-2010: national program manager to intensify the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for core international crimes, drafting a common national strategy and establishing a Task Force;
2010-2015: coördinator and developer of the Exclusion Module of the European Union Asylum Agency’s Asylum Curriculum, providing a 20-hour e-learning module and two days of face-to-face training for European immigration officers on detecting, investigating, and assessing alleged war criminals;
2013 -2015: project manager "Arab Spring and Beyond: Safeguarding the Integrity and Support for International Protection," aimed at identifying war criminals from the Middle East;
2015-2016: leveraging my extensive network, I initiated two international conferences that resulted in the EUAA’s Exclusion Network, which now collaborates closely with Eurojust’s Genocide Network.

During the 2015/2016 refugee crisis I was appointed deputy head of the General Director's Office and head of the Integrity Unit of the Dutch immigration service. Subsequently, I explored new routes in open innovation to combat impunity for core international crimes, focusing on optimizing prevention, detection, identification, and responses to these crimes.

Favourite quotes

“With each new crisis and international crime, we play catch-up. We focus our efforts on resolving existing situations and perpetrated crimes with our reactive tools & instruments. But then, by definition, we are too late. So I speak from experience when I say that what is required for addressing core international crimes, is an entirely new conceptual framework based not (just) in resolving situations and finding redress, but in preventing these situations and crimes. I believe that what is required now is a radical change in how we view humanity and the abuses on human beings of any and all persuasions, religious or ethnic groups. This will require a revolutionary integration of disciplines, working in concert for innovative solutions that ensure multi-faceted engagement”.

Inspired by and constructed upon the words of Romeo Dallaire, commander of the UN troops in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide.

Spoken at the occasion of the 75th birthday of the United Nations.

“No individual has sufficient experience, education, native ability and knowledge in any undertaking without the cooperation of other people. Surround yourself with people who together create a reservoir of intelligence. When these brains work together in harmony, the intelligence of each is available to all and virtually anything is possible.”

Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich

Key experience

25 years

forced migration professional

18 years

MANAGEr of refugee status determination officers

>10 years

manager of a dutch war crimes unit (immigration service)

>10 years

(inter)national capacity building

EU Asylum Agency Exclusion training & network

CoördInator & initiator

Dutch all of government strategy for international crimes

national Programme Manager

investigations on international crimes

operational manager of specialists, expert, investigators

Integrated cross-sector strategies for combatting impunity

developer

MOTIVATION

I am a dedicated, pragmatic and purpose driven professional. With Gather4Humanity I seek to:

promote human rights standards, while furthering compliance and enforcement of these international principles
contribute to prevention, accountability, truth, justice and reconciliation
to reduce human suffering and refugee flows
connect, inform, empower and inspire like-minded people, partners, organisations and professionals

expertise

I am passionate about furthering core values related to my respective fields of interest and expertise. Achieving lasting and appealing results by furthering multidisciplinary cooperation, building bridges and achieving mutual beneficial and sustainable solutions is what really drives me.

My areas of expertise lay in the fields of:

(forced)migration
investigation of and exclusion from refugee status for those responsible for core international crimes
international humanitarian and/or criminal law
human rights
good governance (integrity management and investigations)
(inter)national multidisciplinary cooperation in my respective fieldsof expertise
capacity building and training
teammanager
(inter)national projects and programmes

Fields of expertise

Migration and asylum

Detecting, investigating and addressing perpetrators of core international crimes

Human rights

International humanitarian and criminal law

Integrity management and investigations

(inter)national multidisciplinary cooperation

capacity building and training

managing project and programmes

key characteristics

Characteristics

I am an initiator aiming to enhance cooperation and finding new approaches and innovations to current challenges. My key characteristics and assessts are:

Independent and impartial investigator

Quick, thorough analyses and factfinding adressing the root cause of issues.

Can do mentality

Exceeding expectations by identifying and realising future proof opportunities and/or directions. Providing perspectives.

Team player

Furthering mutual beneficial goals through drive, energy, focus, dedication and openness.

Balanced leader

I am determined, provide direction under all circumstances, show ownership, and deliver.

Result driven

I aim to exceed expectations, when faced with obstacles I am resilient and use my perserverance.

Key characteristices

independent-impartial investigator

Can do mentality

Team player

Balanced leader

Result driven

wHAT OTHERS SAY

Lagerweij & Partners assessment

The charachter profile of mr. Ten Hove can be qualified as follows.

Creative, result driven, balanced, change orientated, empathetic, extravert, flexible, integer and rich of inititiative. He aims to steer and have influence, and acts from a position of equality. He keeps an eye on the individual; is sincerely interested in people and wants to know what is on their mind, so he can adjust his approach and behaviour as a manager. He aims to work in a constructive working environment, but expects effort and quality of his staff. In a managerial role he gets energy from change, innovation and new assignments or projects. His charachter is less interested in a typical managerial function; just looking after things is not his cup of tea. He is enthusiastic and engaged in his work and possess a plain, no-nonsense attitude (what you see is what you get).

LTP assessments by Business Psychologists

In 2019 I was assessed under uncertain situations, under increasing physical and mental fatigue in order to investigate whether I would remain effective in a group and whether I would be capable to adjust to a different cultural setting.

Key findings:

my basic attitude is very friendly, respectful, and quiet;
I posses a non judgmental approach and am extremely cultural sensitive;
self-insight; amply capable of looking in a positive critical way to my own behaviour and my environment, dare to show my vulnarability;
I am a person who can -in nearly all circumstances- fit in and add value to a group;
stress resistant; I am calm and quiet by default, know to approach stressful situations in a concentrated and balanced manner;
I give weight to the way people perceive my behaviour and input, I may put more emphasis on my added value;
I know to win suppprt by my respectful and diplomatic approach, I may -however- adopt a more bold and robust way to share my point of view.