Els Dumortier

Els Dumortier is a faculty researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), affiliated with the College of Humanities, Department of Criminology. She specializes in youth justice, children's rights, and asylum procedures, with a focus on empirical studies and interdisciplinary collaboration.

• Brussels Interdisciplinary Research Centre on Migration and Minorities
• Centre of Expertise on Gender, Diversity and Intersectionality
• Fundamental Rights Centre

Her research explores procedural fairness for youth in legal systems, including police interrogations and juvenile detention. Recent projects include JEZZ (creative storytelling for youth empowerment) and Voicing Youth at Social Risk (collaborative research practices).

Key article themes span children's rights, asylum procedures, and juvenile justice, with methodological emphasis on qualitative, rights-based, and policy-oriented approaches.

She has supervised multiple research projects and PhD trajectories, including work on youth detention in Belgium and the European asylum system. Her activities include conference presentations and editorial roles in academic publications.