• EU: Rights Abuse at Home Ignored
    Jan 22, 2012
    The European Union and member governments proved unwilling to tackle human rights abuse at home during 2011, even as they proclaimed the issue’s importance in inspiring the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.
  • The Netherlands: Transgender Law Violates Rights
    Sep 13, 2011

    The Dutch Civil Code violates the human rights of transgender people, and the government should amend it without delay. The government should revise article 28 of the civil code, which requires transgender people to take hormones and undergo surgery to alter their bodies and be permanently and irreversibly sterilized before they can have their gender legally recognized on official documents Human Rights Watch said.

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  • Human Rights in The Netherlands

    The influence of the anti-immigrant Freedom Party, which supports the Dutch coalition government, is evident in the country’s migration and asylum policy. During 2011, the government adopted or proposed a raft of measures to restrict the rights of asylum seekers and migrants, including limiting appeal rights for asylum seekers and access to social services for migrants. The leader of the Freedom Party, Geert Wilders, was acquitted in June 2011 of inciting hatred against Muslims and Moroccans. 

Reports

Netherlands

  • EU: Rights Abuse at Home Ignored
    Jan 22, 2012
    The European Union and member governments proved unwilling to tackle human rights abuse at home during 2011, even as they proclaimed the issue’s importance in inspiring the Arab Spring, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2012.
  • The Netherlands: Transgender Law Violates Rights
    Sep 13, 2011

    The Dutch Civil Code violates the human rights of transgender people, and the government should amend it without delay. The government should revise article 28 of the civil code, which requires transgender people to take hormones and undergo surgery to alter their bodies and be permanently and irreversibly sterilized before they can have their gender legally recognized on official documents Human Rights Watch said.

  • Netherlands: Human Rights Watch to Open Amsterdam Office
    Sep 12, 2010
    Human Rights Watch will open a new office in Amsterdam on September 14, 2010, in a move to intensify its advocacy on key human rights issues both in the Netherlands and around the world.
  • Letter to Netherlands Informateur on Priorities for the New Government
    Sep 10, 2010
    In a letter on September 10 to Tjeenk Willink, who is organizing and overseeing the talks to form a new Dutch government, Human Rights Watch called on the next government to give the highest possible priority to human rights in its international relations while leading by example and addressing flaws in its own asylum system and integration policy.
  • The Netherlands: Do Not Deport Somalis
    Jul 21, 2010
    The Dutch government should immediately halt all plans to return Somalis to war-torn Somalia.
  • EU: Defer Hasty Returns of Migrant Children
    Jun 4, 2010
    The European Union Justice and Home Affairs Council conclusions on unaccompanied migrant children focus too much on how to send them back to their countries of origin and too little on how to guarantee their safety. The conclusions were adopted on June 3, 2010.
  • The Netherlands: Support Global Protection for Child Domestic Workers
    May 6, 2010
    The Dutch government is leading efforts to end child labor as the host of an international conference next week, but the government should also support binding international standards to protect domestic workers. Globally, more girls are in household work than in any other sector of child labor.
  • An Unfair Attack on Gay Troops
    Mar 29, 2010
    Gen. John Sheehan, the former NATO commander, told a Senate committee this month that part of the blame for one of the last half-century's most famous atrocities -- the massacre at Srebrenica during the Bosnian war -- rested on gays in the Dutch military.
  • UN Race Conference Undermined by Western Withdrawals
    Apr 19, 2009
    The announcement by the US government that it would not participate in the upcoming UN Review Conference on Racism, followed by the decision of the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Australia to pull out and Germany to attend as an observer, strikes a blow at UN efforts to fight racism.
  • Netherlands: Court Rules Pre-Entry Integration Exam Unlawful
    Jul 16, 2008
    The Dutch government should suspend its discriminatory “integration test abroad” – an exam on Dutch language and society – that is required for family migrants from some non-Western countries following a July 15 court ruling that the test is unlawful, Human Rights Watch said today.
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