Amnesty International and Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland are both concerned about the fate of Bahraini asylum seeker Ali Mohammed Al-Showaikh. The Netherlands deported him to the Gulf nation of Bahrain in October and he was arrested upon arrival, RTL Nieuws reports.
According to the human rights organizations, there are strong indications that Al-Showaikh was abused or even tortured, and that he was forced to sign a confession.
The Netherlands was well aware of human rights violations committed by Syrian rebel movement Jabhat al-Shamiya when the country started offering them logistical support, Nieuwsuur and Trouw report based on emails sent between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and human rights organization Amnesty International in the summer of 2016.
The government of Curacao is denying fleeing Venezuelans their international right to asylum, according to a report Amnesty International published on Monday. The human rights organization calls on the Netherlands to intervene, ANP reports.
At this time Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs sees no reason to summon the Israeli ambassador for an explanation about the dozens of deaths and hundreds of wounded who fell during demonstrations on the Palestinian side of the Gaza Strip on Monday, he said to parliament on Tuesday, NU.nl reports.
The situation in Afghanistan is still very dangerous, and people sent back to the country run the risk of being kidnapped, tortured and killed, according to 10 aid organizations. They call on the Dutch government to stop deporting asylum seekers back to the country, RTL Nieuws reports.
Human rights organization Amnesty International calls on the Dutch government to do justice to the millions of people who voted against a new law for the Dutch intelligence services in a referendum on Wednesday. The law should be changed on certain points to make certain it protects human rights, the Dutch branch of the organization said in a statement on Thursday.
Amnesty International strongly criticized several European Union member states, including the Netherlands, in its annual yearbook that was presented on Thursday. According to the organization, human rights are under pressure in the EU, ANP reports.
"In countries like Poland and Hungary, the rule of law is being eroded even further. But also in France and in the Netherlands, human rights are no longer always a matter of course", the human rights organization said with the publication of its Yearbook 2017-2018.
ING and Rabobank provided loans to three Dutch importers who purchase granite from quarries that use child labor, according to research from banking watchdog the Eerlijke Bankwijzer, RTL Nieuws reports.
Human rights organization Amnesty International is calling on Nigeria, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom to launch a criminal investigation into Shell and the possibility that company officials tacitly encouraged the Nigerian military government in Ogoniland to commit atrocities in the 1990s, including rapes, murders, acts of torture, and the burning of villages.
Detainees in the special terrorist departments in the prisons in De Schie and Vught are detained under inhumane conditions, human rights organizations Amnesty International and Open Society Justice Initiative (OSJI) said in a report. "People are locked up in their cell for long periods and systematically undergo degrading visitations", the report states, RTL Nieuws reports.
Shell is being accused of complicity in the execution-style deaths of nine Nigerian activists in 1995. The widows of four of these activists filed a lawsuit in the Netherlands against the Dutch oil giant on Wednesday, the Volkskrant reports.
While panda enthusiasts across the Netherlands celebrated the arrival of pandas Wu Wen and Xing Ya on Wednesday, Amnesty International posted a video on social media reminding people not to let the pandas make them forget about all the human rights violations in China.
Chinese giant pandas Wu Wen and Xing Ya arrived safely in the Netherlands. After traveling nearly 8 thousand kilometers from Chengdu in China, they arrived at their new home in Ouwehands Zoo in Rhenen just before midnight on Wednesday, NOS reports.
The two pandas are on loan from China. They will be living in Ouwehands Zoo for the next 15 years.
In its annual report Amnesty International is sounding the alarm about the rise of populism across the world and the implications it has for human rights. According to the human rights organization, the situation deteriorated significantly over 2016, and that can be attributed political forces rebelling against the established order. Also in the Netherlands populism is a rising problem, the organization said in a brief press conference about the report, NOS reports.
Hani Al Rawi, a Syrian refugee now living in the Netherlands, spent about six months in the notorious Saydnaya prison in the Syrian capital Damascus. "I hung six hours per day with my wrists tied together", he said to broadcaster NOS about the experience.
Only lst year Amnesty International fought against unjust regimes in countries like Turkey or Russia. This year the United States is almost at the top of the list and even the Netherlands is climbing in the rankings of countries the organization is concerned about, director Eduard Nazarski said to RTL Nieuws. He specifically mentioned PVV leader Geert Wilders and VVD leader and Prime Minster Mark Rutte.
Dutch banks still generally fall seriously short when it comes to climate policy and that sets the organizations behind, according to a new report published by the Fair Bank Guide on Wednesday, ANP reports.
Only SNS, ASN and Triodos scored well on their climate policy. Aegon, ING, ABN Amro, Rabobank, Delta Lloyd and Van Lanschot all scored an insufficient. According to the researchers, most Dutch banks don't require oil companies to prevent drilling in the fragile Arctic. They also don't publish measurable CO2 reduction targets for the companies in which the invest.
Both intelligence service AIVD and the National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security Dick Schoof contacted Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb prior to Sinterklaas' arrival in Maassluis on Saturday to warn him about possible clashes between anti-blackface Zwarte Piet activists, right-wing protesters and hooligans, the mayor said in a debate with his city council on Thursday, NOS reports.
Documents leaked from the Open Society Foundations - a number of foundations belonging to American billionaire George Soros - revealed that Soros paid 4.9 million euros to Dutch foundations, charities and think tanks between 2009 and 2014
Amnesty International, the federation of human rights organizations FIDH, the Dutch lawyers committee for human rights and the Coalition for the International Criminal Court all feel that the Dutch authorities are not vigilant enough to threats against human rights defenders
Human rights activists Leyla and Arif Yunus arrived safely in the Netherlands after fleeing from Azerbaijan. They're staying in the so-called Shelter City - a safe place where human rights defenders can live in peace for three months - at the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The first group of Syrian asylum seekers from Turkey will arrive in the Netherlands on Tuesday, the European Commission announced on Monday. These are "recognized asylum seekers" that EU member states agreed to take in as part of the asylum agreement with Turkey, which took effect on Monday.
Minister Bert Koenders of Foreign Affairs will seriously investigate a report by Amnesty International which states that Turkey deports hundreds of asylum seekers back to Syria on a daily basis
European countries, including the Netherlands, are losing sight of protecting international human rights in the wake of the refugee crisis and the rise of terrorist organization ISIS, according to Amnesty International's annual report
