La Strada Documentation Center

Report on the human rights situation in The Netherlands

Document number
2031
Date
2009
Title
Report on the human rights situation in The Netherlands
Author/publisher
Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's High Commissioner for Human Rights
Availability
View/save PDF version of this document
Document type(s)
Meeting Documentation/Conference Reports,
Keywords
Summary
On 11 March, Thomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe's High Commissioner for Human Rights, presented his report on the human rights situation in the Netherlands. The report is based on a visit carried out in September 2008. In his report the Commissioner has in particularly paid close attention to the treatment of asylum seekers, children's rights and integration.  The Commissioner expresses his grave concern, among others, on the plans to process more asylum applications through an enhanced accelerated procedure. He highlights that a fast-track procedure is clearly unsuitable for vulnerable groups such as victims of violence and unaccompanied children and therefore urges the Dutch authorities to limit these procedure to clear-cut cases.  Furthermore, the administrative detention of asylum seekers must be kept to a strict minimum. The Commissioner recalls that the general legal principle of proportionality requires an individual assessment of each case as well as consideration of alternatives to detention. He calls upon the Dutch authorities to provide further alternatives to detention, keeping families united, and not to detain children, except in extraordinary circumstances precisely defined in law in accordance with the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. (Source: ECRE Newsletter)
Related documents