Nani Jansen Reventlow
Nani Jansen Reventlow is a human rights lawyer specialised in strategic litigation and freedom of expression. She is the founding Director of the Digital Freedom Fund, which supports partners in Europe to advance digital rights through strategic litigation. Nani is also an Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers, a Lecturer in Law at Columbia Law School and a Senior Fellow at Columbia Law School’s Human Rights Institute. She is an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, where she was a 2016-2017 Fellow. Nani has been an advisor to Harvard’s Cyberlaw Clinic since 2016.
Between 2011 and 2016, Nani oversaw the litigation practice of the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI) globally, leading or advising on cases in over 50 national jurisdictions and representing clients before the European Court of Human Rights, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Committee, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and several African regional forums. Nani obtained the first freedom of expression judgment from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (Konaté v. Burkina Faso) and from the East African Court of Justice (Burundi Journalists’ Union v. Burundi). As a Fellow at the Berkman Klein Center, Nani developed the Catalysts for Collaboration, which offers a set of best practices and case studies encouraging activists to collaborate across disciplinary silos and use strategic litigation in digital rights campaigns.
Nani is also a strategic adviser to GQUAL, campaign for gender parity in international representation, a board member of the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development, the Media Development Investment Fund, and Security Council Report, a member of the Human Rights Watch Policy Committee and Human Rights Watch Netherlands Committee, and an advisory board member of the Initiative for a Representative First Amendment (IfRFA). A Dutch-qualified attorney, Nani graduated in civil law and public international law from the University of Amsterdam and specialised in human rights at Columbia Law School and the European University Institute. Follow her @InterwebzNani.
Nani was profiled for ATLAS by Angela Mudukuti. Learn more about Angela's work at the end of this profile and follow her @AngelaMudukuti.
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What brought you into this career and what were your first steps?
That is always a difficult question to answer because my career trajectory looks neat on paper but it was not all by design. I didn’t start with the current career I have as I was initially drawn to public international law. That interest developed when I was in law school at the University of Amsterdam. During my first months there I had a course called Introduction to International Law and I just loved it. I decided to add International and European Law as a second law degree in addition to my normal Dutch Civil Law degree. I found it exciting because it was a combination of law, public relations, and international diplomacy fused with an economic dimension as well. I found it fascinating. After law school I went to the United States to do an LL.M. at Columbia University and it was a great year in many respects.
After that I started applying for jobs. I used my Optional Practical Training which allows you to stay in the US on your student visa for another year after you have finished your studies and I did an internship with an NGO called Security Council Report. During that time, I applied for every single human rights job I could find, I even had an Excel spreadsheet with all of my application details. I did not get any of them. I did a lot of unpaid and part-time work during law school, but that was unfortunately not taken as seriously by prospective employers. Now as an employer myself, I can understand the preference for someone who has some work experience under their belt, if you have the choice of course. I eventually applied to UN Volunteers and something came up with the UN Mission in Haiti. Then, I genuinely had to ask myself if I could actually do this. I asked a friend who worked at the UN Legal Department what his thoughts were about this opportunity. He asked if I felt I could hit the ground running. Honestly, I was not sure. I had never practiced law. He advised that I go and work for a law firm for a few years where I could get some experience and solid legal training. I took his advice, though not with great enthusiasm. In retrospect I am glad I did it because it allowed me to do a lot more in my current field than I may have been able to do otherwise.
I went to work for a Dutch law firm called De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek but always with a keen eye on escaping and going into public international law and human rights. I was there for just over four years. One day I found a very interesting job focused on strategic litigation with the Open Society Justice Initiative. I did not even come anywhere close to being invited for an interview. A month or so later I heard about another strategic litigation opportunity at the Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI), an organisation focusing on press freedom. I knew nothing about freedom of expression. A friend from ARTICLE 19 encouraged me to apply and reassured me that they would not find a candidate who met all the requirements listed in the vacancy so I should just apply. That is one of the best pieces of advice I have ever received: do not disqualify yourself beforehand. I applied and got invited for an interview. With some help from my friend, I studied everything I could find on freedom of expression. I guess I did an “ok” interview because I got the job.
It was a relatively new organisation which presented a great opportunity to help build their practice. My boss also gave me the freedom to be innovative and creative. When I arrived, they had around 40 cases and when I left there were 150 or so, 10 percent of which we litigated ourselves. It was a wonderful opportunity to grow and make use of the litigation skills I had gained at the law firm. It also allowed me to litigate in different courts and tribunals all over the world.
Then I realised that I was only doing freedom of expression in relation to the media which is really a niche within a niche. Given that the world of human rights is broad, I realised that I should make sure to not get trapped and so I had to figure out a way to make the switch. At MLDI, a relatively small organisation, I had a lot of freedom and responsibilities. I remember asking myself whether I should go to a bigger organisation? Do I go from MLDI to an organisation where I will be a cog in a bigger wheel? A potentially very interesting and impactful wheel, but still very different in terms of the freedom I would have. Or should I try to do something at the same level but in a different area? Then I realised that, despite the rampant perpetration of human rights violations, job opportunities in the human rights world are actually limited.
In 2016, I decided to design my own job. Luckily a friend encouraged me to look at the fellowship programme at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University, and I ended up designing a fellowship project focused on strategic litigation to keep the internet open and free. The aim was to figure out how people from different disciplines could better collaborate to do litigation with a real impact. This project gave me a home at Harvard and at the same time I did consultancy work for other NGOs. It was really comforting to know that it was possible to design my own job, so to speak. During that time the opportunity to set up the Digital Freedom Fund came along. Then, it was basically a job ad to run a non-existent organisation, which I foolishly applied for and it has turned out to be a lot of fun!
All of that seems logically planned, but it was not planned at all. One thing led to the next.
You mentioned that you applied for many human rights jobs and did not even get shortlisted. Did you ever get dismayed when it came to thinking about the viability of human rights as a career?
Totally! It is very difficult to keep your spirits up if you keep getting rejected or in some cases get no response at all to your application. But I knew what kind of work I wanted to do and having been at a law firm made it clear that the law firm lifestyle and culture was really not my thing. I gained very good training and skills because my law firm was very much focused on producing work that exhibited that element of perfectionism. It was excellent training. We did our work thoroughly and produced high quality legal work, however it was very clear to me that I was not going to be happy if I stayed, therefore finding human rights work was very important.
Many people would say that you look much younger than you actually are. Having read an interview where you clearly state your age, I am inclined to agree. In my experience, this factor, combined with our gender often results in us being immediately underestimated when we walk into a room. Is this a challenge you have faced? If so, how have you overcome it?
Yes I have encountered this. It is a combination of things: looking younger than I am, being a woman and being a woman of colour. It is incredibly annoying. You sense it when you walk into a room. You meet people and you can tell that they think you are the intern or that you just got promoted from your internship. There are a few techniques that I have used from time to time: always drop little hints in the conversation that show your experience and the different contexts you have worked in and always show up well prepared. The fact that this routine is often necessary is also irritating but I have found it to be the easiest way to get to a point where we can actually get down to business.
I must say that these unfair, discriminatory assumptions usually fade away as the conversation continues because they soon realise that you do know what you are talking about, but it is very annoying as it always sets you back a little bit. If you show up as a middle-aged white man, the assumption is that you are well versed in whatever the subject matter is and therefore people immediately pay attention to you. In our case, you have to prove that you know what you are talking about and only then are you taken seriously.
What are some of the other challenges you have faced in your professional life, and how have you tackled them?
The challenges of being a woman of colour should not be underestimated. I find that you get taxed additionally if you are woman and taxed further if you are a woman of colour. As a woman of colour in a leadership role I have found that you get a lot of responsibilities but none of the credit from the people you are dealing with. It manifests itself in really silly things; for example, dealing with service providers who simply refuse to take you seriously even though you are the one paying their bills.
You always have to stand your ground. And you have to navigate how to stand your ground in a way that is forceful enough without evoking other negative racial and gender-based stereotypes that people may have. It comes into play in so many different relationships.
One thing that is nice about having a little more clout is that you can call things out without people ignoring or dismissing you. For example, back when I was at the law firm I was involved in an initiative driven by some of the senior women at the firm to address the lack of gender diversity. During one of these meetings I pointed out that there was another diversity issue at the law firm, namely, that there were less than five people of colour working as lawyers in a firm that had 350 staff members. There were subsequent meetings on the gender diversity issue but I was not invited to attend after my last intervention. Now I am in a situation where I can say something and not be ignored or excluded. Earlier this year, I went to a conference in Helsinki where the topic of discussion was Artificial Intelligence and human rights. There were over 300 people in the room and only two women of colour, including me. We spotted each other across this sea of white faces. When it was time to deliver my presentation on stage I was able to point out that it was great that we were all there, talking about discrimination and AI but I outright asked why the room composition did not reflect any sensitivity to or awareness of diversity? Now it is much easier to make these issues front and centre without getting booed off the podium. That is a massive improvement. However, it is still difficult in daily life as it something that is always there. It costs energy. Sometimes I find it frustrating that this energy that could be spent on other things, is going into the ongoing fight against the racist patriarchy.
Needing to make money was also a challenge as I did not have parents who could finance me. I had to work my way through law school and take student loans. A lot of the people I ended up talking to when trying to find my way into a human rights job were taking unpaid internships at the UN and getting all this experience but I could not afford that. I had loans to pay and could not rely on unpaid work. I found that very difficult. Unpaid internships are hugely problematic and we all have to figure out how to fix the system. We do need to be nuanced in our approach and distinguish between stipends and salaries and actual full-time labour vs part-time work during studies. We need to find that good spot where there is a win-win with and actual transfer of knowledge and experience in exchange for reduced compensation, but where internships remain accessible for a broad range of students.
What are some of the highlights of your career, thus far?
From a lawyers' perspective some of the international litigation that I have done has been very meaningful. This includes the opportunity to plead before Supreme Court of Rwanda, appearing before the East African Court of Justice and the time when we obtained the first freedom of expression judgment from the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in the case of Konaté v. Burkina Faso. All of that was so exciting and thrilling. It has also been rewarding because of the visible impact it had on the clients we represented. For them, having their day in court was in and of itself a victory. Being able to go before a court and being heard was important for them and to be a part of making that possible as their lawyer was incredible.
Another highlight is, what started as a job advert for the Director of a non-existent organisation is now an actual organisation with eight people on staff. Reflecting on that is really cool. It has been a very strange journey because it started out as a Microsoft Word document where I was trying to figure out the name of the organisation, come up with a Twitter handle and design the governance structure. The fact that it has become an entity is awesome but bewildering at the same time as I never thought of myself as someone who would start an organisation. Shows you how things can just evolve.
Teaching at Columbia Law School has also been very rewarding. I teach “The Defence of Freedom of Expression around the World: the Role of the Advocate”, which examines high-profile freedom of expression cases litigated in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas. Teaching has been a fun way to engage with the substance and it has been so interesting to see how much the students actually enjoy this course. My co-professor and I designed it and successfully pitched it to Columbia Law School, hoping it would be well received by students and, fortunately, it truly has been. It also seems to have inspired a few students to consider a career in the field which is great.
What advice would you give to women of colour who are facing some of the challenges you have highlighted?
That is a difficult question. Unfortunately, when you enter this field you have very few bargaining chips. The first thing I would say is, in instances where you have identified that not fitting the general mould is an asset – use it! There are, of course, a lot of debates about positive discrimination but we are so far from anything that resembles a level playing field. Therefore, as far as I am concerned, arguments against positive discrimination are totally irrelevant given where we are now.
The second thing is – try and find allies, particularly at the beginning when you do not have that much power, find allies. Make your own version of the Old Boys Network. When you are in a position of power always think of the amazing women you can pass opportunities to.
Third – have people you can commiserate with because the discrimination is hard to deal with sometimes. I have often enough cried in the shower out of pure frustration after another hard day and it has been so helpful to have people I could talk to who easily understood what I was going through. As my awareness of these issues has grown, the conversations I have had with my white friends and my white husband have changed and, whilst there is mutual learning in that, there is also something really wonderful about being able to have that conversation with people you do not have to explain the issue to. You say two words and they know exactly what you are talking about. So it is important to feel like you are not alone. If you are in it for the long run you have to build those relationships and have that support.
What advice would you give to young women who want to be where you are?
Do not let anyone tell you no. Do not let anyone tell you that you “can’t” or that you “should not”. I vividly remember when I was doing my LL.M. and looking for human rights work people kept advising me to take the “safe” route that they had taken and go to a law firm, buy a house, get a mortgage, stay in your own country etc. A lot of people said, “I used to have that dream… but it is really hard.” I am so glad that I did not listen. I am not saying it was easy, and yes being at the law firm was a detour that served me well in the end. But it is not the only route and I definitely would not recommend it for everyone.
Getting into human rights work is possible and there are many different ways to get the necessary experience. You need to remain open to the different avenues and remember that your journey does not necessarily have to be linear. There will be different opportunities that will allow you to develop as a person and figure out where your interest lies. If I look at the things I was applying for when I left law school, the range was extremely broad and it included everything from litigation to advocacy work and research. Now, I know that I would be miserable as a researcher. These are very subjective things that one has to figure out about oneself. Keep a very open mind but remember where you want to be.
Be really clever about how you use contacts and mentors. For example, if you are going to get in touch with people who are in the line of work you want to be in, think carefully about how you use the time they make for you. Make sure you are prepared and have done your research so that when you have their attention you are not asking questions that lead to information that you could have easily found online. Maximise the opportunity and time. Make a good impression and get the most out of that exchange. Most people really want to help, and I remember having my excel spreadsheet and not having anyone who could give me advice or a leg up. So I greatly appreciate the opportunity to help when I can because I did not have that type of support. That being said, it is always easier to help someone who comes well-prepared.
Always negotiate your salary! I decided to do this when I was getting started and I see it as my individual contribution to narrowing the gender pay gap. We should all be more supportive in this regard, including sharing information about what the expectations can or should be for certain positions. After all, we all know that we work in a field that is severely underpaid.
Nani Jansen Reventlow was profiled for ATLAS by Angela Mudukuti. Angela is a Zimbabwean lawyer currently with the Wayamo Foundation, where she focuses on advocacy and capacity building for African prosecutors and investigators to further enhance domestic capacity to investigate and prosecute transnational organised crime and core international crimes. Formerly with the Southern Africa Litigation Centre (SALC), Angela worked on precedent-setting cases on crimes against humanity and universal jurisdiction brought before the South African Constitutional Court, and was deeply involved in advocacy and strategic litigation, including seeking the arrest of former President Bashir (Sudan) during his visit to South Africa. Prior to joining SALC, Angela worked for the Office of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Court, and under the supervision of Prof Cherif Bassiouni at the International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights in Siracusa, Italy. Prior to that, Angela was in private practice in Zimbabwe working on civil and criminal matters. Angela has an LLM in international criminal law and transitional justice and an undergraduate law degree. Angela has written and published on international criminal law issues in books, journals and newspapers and is a permanent member of prominent international criminal law blog Opinio Juris.