(Amsterdam) - 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, Human Rights Watch said today.
"The Netherlands' voice and influence are needed in trouble spots around the world," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "The Dutch government is an important international player in defending global human rights, but its reach still falls short of its potential."
In a letter on September 10 to Herman 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.
In the letter, Human Rights Watch said that the European Union should create institutions to advance human rights worldwide. Human Rights Watch cited the need to investigate crimes against humanity in Burma, to protect civilians in the Great Lakes region of Africa, and to press the Indonesian government to release political prisoners.
Human Rights Watch called on the new government to halt deportations to countries such as Somalia, where returned migrants are at risk of abuse. Human Rights Watch also said the Netherlands should eliminate the discriminatory "integration test abroad," which requires family members seeking to join legal migrants from some non-Western countries to pass a test on Dutch language and society.
The Netherlands is the 15th country in which Human Rights Watch has a permanent office. It has staff in 21 more.
Human Rights Watch monitors and reports on international human rights, refugee, and humanitarian law issues in some 90 countries around the world. Recent investigations have documented ethnic violence in southern Kyrgyzstan, abuses against Asian and African migrant domestic workers in Lebanon, repression in Tibet, violations of workers' rights in the United States by European multinational corporations, and the use of degrading "finger" tests on rape survivors in India. Human Rights Watch regularly meets with government officials to urge changes in policy and practice, at the United Nations, the European Union, and in capitals around the world.
Human Rights Watch is supported by contributions from private individuals and foundations worldwide. It accepts no government funds, directly or indirectly.
Roth and the Human Rights Watch Netherlands director, Anna Timmerman, will hold a press briefing at 11 a.m. on September 13, 2010 in the new office, at the Cristofori, Prinsengracht 583. The official opening will be in the office at 4 p.m. on September 14.
