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Netherlands

Events of 2018 - Part of the EU Chapter

LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) asylum seekers and migrants, seen here at an earlier demonstration with others from the LGBT community, had their calls for better recognition rates of their refugee status accepted during 2018. The Hague, on September 5, 2017. 

© 2017 REMKO DE WAAL/AFP/Getty Images

Keynote

Essays

 
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As China’s Grip Tightens, Global Institutions Gasp

Limiting Beijing’s Influence Over Accountability and Justice

 
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Caught in the Middle

Convincing “Middle Powers” to Fight Autocrats Despite High Costs

 
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Atrocities as the New Normal

Time to Re-Energize the “Never Again” Movement

 
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Breaking the Buzzword

Fighting the “Gender Ideology” Myth

 
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Can Algorithms Save Us from Human Error?

Human Judgment and Responsibility in the Age of Technology

 
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Living Longer, Locked Away

Helping Older People Stay Connected, and at Home

 
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Equatorial Guinea

Events of 2018

 
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Social Media’s Moral Reckoning

Changing the Terms of Engagement with Silicon Valley

The government moved to limit accommodation for newly arrived asylum seekers in the country, arguing that local authorities were increasingly meeting demand, and during the year closed multiple shelters, with the aim of reducing capacity from 31,000 to 27,000. The reduction in reception capacity for the second year in a row gave rise to concerns about the adequacy of provision for arriving asylum seekers.

In July, the government announced that it planned to improve procedures to assess asylum claims based on fear of persecution on grounds of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) identity or religious conversion, by treating cases in a more individualized manner, following criticism by NGOs and parliamentarians.

Notwithstanding the results of a non-binding public referendum in March rejecting a sweeping new surveillance law passed the previous year by parliament, the law entered force in May. Domestic rights groups remained critical of the new bulk interception powers, the level of oversight of those powers to intercept bulk data, and controls over sharing material derived from the interception with other countries’ intelligence agencies.

In June, the Minister of Justice and Security confirmed to parliament that the government continued to exercise powers to deprive terror suspects abroad of their Dutch citizenship, although he refused to confirm how many individuals had citizenship removed. The same month a Dutch court expressed concerns about whether the limited safeguards in the process are consistent with the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

A May ruling by Limburg district court found the Dutch law requiring people to identify as either male or female on official documents, including birth certificates, to be too restrictive and urged legislators to make statutory provision for a gender-neutral option.

 

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