• 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. 

  • EU: Enact Controls on Digital Weapons Trade
    Dec 11, 2012

    The European Union should enact new controls on internet surveillance technologies that have enabled human rights violations. The European Parliament adopted a new digital freedom strategy in EU foreign policy in the plenary on December 11.

  • 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.
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Netherlands

  • EU: Enact Controls on Digital Weapons Trade
    Dec 11, 2012

    The European Union should enact new controls on internet surveillance technologies that have enabled human rights violations. The European Parliament adopted a new digital freedom strategy in EU foreign policy in the plenary on December 11.

  • Netherlands: Joint NGO Letter to Minister Leers
    Apr 1, 2012
    We, the undersigned 5 human rights organizations, are writing to urge you not to return Abu Kurke Kebato, a 23-year-old Ethiopian, and his 21-year-old wife Seena Tafse Mohammed, also an Ethiopian national, to Italy. We understand that both were detained on March 29, 2012 pending deportation to Italy on April 5, 2012.
  • Letter to Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Regarding December 2012 Netherlands Country Report on Iraq
    Mar 8, 2012
    While Human Rights Watch appreciates your government’s discussion of Iraqis identifying as LGBT in the report, we are concerned that the section downplays the severe challenges and risks faced by the LGBT community in Iraq.
  • 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.
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