A tenth of female students in NL raped during studies: Amnesty International
11 percent of female students in the Netherlands were raped during their studies. The same is true for 1 percent of male students, Amnesty International reported based on an I&O Research survey of a representative group of over a thousand Dutch-speaking HBO and WO students, ANP reports.
The majority of cases involved the partner insisting or continuing without checking whether the other person wanted to have sex. In 10 percent of cases, victims were coerced with physical violence. More than half of victims said they did not consider what happened to them as rape. Many said the event was not serious enough, or felt partly responsible, according to the human rights organization.
Current Dutch law defines rape as sex with coercion, violence or threat. Last year Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security submitted a bill that makes all non-consensual sex punishable as rape.
According to Amnesty International, higher education institutions need to take more responsibility for the safety and well-being of their students. The survey showed that about 60 percent of respondents did not know where to turn at their school to get help after being raped. "To start with, colleges and universities must draw up thorough protocols and communicate this clearly and regularly with their students," said Amnesty International director Dagmar Oudshoorn.
