Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards

The Netherlands – of which I am still a loyal citizen – has an Advisory Council on International Affairs and it is regularly asked for advice by the Government. This time the Council, at least its Committee on Human Rights, did not wait for the new Government to ask but decided spontaneously to react to the first pronouncements of the Government and the first parliamentary debates.  The Council also wanted to beat the deadline for input into the Policy Document on Human Rights Policy that the Government promised to send to the Parliament on 1 April 2011. It has become a short but powerful document (30 pages) and is worth reading in its totality. The Human Rights Committee has a membership that includes most Dutch Human Rights experts such as Cees Flinterman, Jenny Goldschmidt, Willem van Genugten, Nico Schrijver, Verrijn Stuart and Menno Kamminga. You can order your copy free of charge from the Council: AIV, PO Box 20061, 2500 EB The Hague, email: aiv@minbuza.nl. Or go to the website: http://www.aiv-advice.nl.

This entry was posted on May 31, 2011 at 19:47 and is filed under books, human rights.

Tags: human rights, Netherlands, policy