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Netherlands

British soldiers from the Royal Air Force conduct a patrol outside Kandahar Air Field, Afghanistan.
Afghanistan: investigations, a bit of truth but no justice
17 April 2025 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Investigations on war crimes in Afghanistan initiated in the UK, Australia, Netherlands, are producing limited results. To try and find out why, our partners at Asymmetrical Haircuts have invited in this new podcast Iain Overton, Thijs Bouwknegt, Ben Saul, and Rachel Reid.
Karim Khan and the ICC are under pressure - Photo: Karim Khan listens to Luis Fernando Murillo whisper in his ear as he shakes his hand during a visit to Colombia. Pressure mounts on the ICC
24 October 2024 by Janet H. Anderson
The investigation into the Israel-Palestine conflict has positioned the International Criminal Court in the forefront of world politics. The institution faces pressures on multiple fronts, externally and internally. Evidence of Is [...]
Trial in the Netherlands for the slavery of Yezidi women in Syria - Photo: a Yezidi woman victim of slavery poses in profile in Syria. “IS saw the Yazidis as objects, not people”
22 October 2024 by Margherita Capacci
From October 14 to 17, victims’ testimonies were shared in the trial of a Dutch national accused of holding two Yazidi women as house slaves in Syria. The accused had travelled in 2015 with her four-year-old son and married an Isl [...]
Between Eritrea and the Netherlands, the nightmare of migrants who are victims of human trafficking. Photo: A migrant in a detention centre in Tripoli, Libya, stands with one hand on his cheek, almost appearing to be asleep. Waiting for Eritrean human traffickers’ trials in the Netherlands
29 April 2024 by Margherita Capacci
A year and six months after a string of arrests of human traffickers accused of holding families living in the Netherlands to ransom, Dutch courts are making slow progress towards trials. Our correspondent attended the latest hear [...]
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The plaque next to the
15 April 2024 by Anne Van Mourik
Bonaire: a history of slavery, a present of social inequalities Bonaire, a Caribbean island within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, features pristine beaches, vibrant diving spots, and a bustling tourist scene. However, behind its beauty lies a tumultuous history marked by slavery and violence [...]
Translation of universal jurisdiction trials - Photo: instant translation equipment with microphone and headphones, in an insulated glass booth.
13 February 2024 by Margherita Capacci
Syrian trials translated into Arabic: the Netherlands' conclusive test On January 22, the verdict in the first Syrian regime-related trial in the Netherlands was announced by the Hague District Court. The trial had a unique feature never before seen in Europe: it was simultaneously translated and reb [...]
The International Court of Justice (ICJ), at the request of the Netherlands and Canada, examines systematic torture in Syria
20 October 2023 by Lucy Gaynor
The law and the spectacle of the law On 10 October, Canada and the Netherlands appeared before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, applying for ‘provisional measures’ to prevent ongoing, systematic, entrenched torture practices being committed by t [...]
Crimes against Yazidis - Kurds demonstrate in the Netherlands in support of the Yezidis and Christians of Iraq, victims of Islamic State violence.
22 May 2023 by Margherita Capacci
Netherlands to open first trial on crimes against Yazidis The first trial for crimes against the Yazidis is about to open in the Netherlands. The defendant, Hasna Aarab, is a 31-year-old Dutch national woman from Hengelo, a town in the East of the country. She is facing charges of slaver [...]
A man walks in front of works of art exhibited at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (Netherlands)
10 January 2023 by Marjolein van Pagee
Colonial racism catches up with Amsterdam Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam was sued by Indonesians for using the racist term bersiap in a recent exhibition. It is through court cases that Indonesian rights activists have changed the debate over the Dutch colonial past and exp [...]
Drawing of David Van Reybrouck
20 December 2022 by Christine Chaumeau
David Van Reybrouck: "The fight for decolonization can’t be detached from the fight against global warming" JUSTICE INFO IN-DEPTH INTERVIEWS David Van Reybrouck Historian and author Belgian essayist, historian and journalist David Van Reybrouck has taken a close look at Belgian and Dutch colonialism in two major works: “Congo, a history [...]
20th session (in 2021) of the Assembly of the States Parties (ASP) at the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague (Netherlands).
2 December 2022 by Janet H. Anderson
Can 2023 be the booster year for the ICC budget? This year's annual meeting of States Parties opens on Monday 5 December in The Hague. The triple combination of the war in Ukraine, the unprecedented involvement of states in the situation, and the zero-increase policy of previous [...]
Colonel aviator Peter Tankink and Dutch Defense Minister Ank Bijleveld hold a press conference in The Hague on November 2019, about the deadly attack by a Dutch F-16 on Hawija, Iraq, in 2015.
18 November 2022 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Hawija: from remote warfare to distant justice This was only one of its 35 thousands missions. When the Dutch Air Force hit the Iraqi city of Hawija in 2015 as part of the war against Islamic State, it killed 70 civilians. But the impact, in a chain, to the health, to educatio [...]
Collection of portraits (archives) of victims of the
26 April 2022 by Thijs Bouwknegt
Time’s ticking for Ethiopia’s Red Terror trial in the Netherlands Last week, The Hague Appeals Court completed its long-awaited hearings on old war crimes in Ethiopia. With ongoing conflict in Tigray, the Derg’s “Red Terror” of four decades ago may seem a story of the past. Yet this belated but [...]
3 Indonesian veterans (one crying) attend a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the war of independence against the Netherlands
10 March 2022 by Roel Frakking and Anne van Mourik
Dutch Colonial Violence and the Missing Voices of Indonesians The Dutch continue to widely underestimate their colonial violence of the past. The publication of the hard-hitting conclusions of the Independence, Decolonization, Violence and War in Indonesia 1945-1950-program revealed the Dutc [...]
Aerial view of Pul-e Charkhi prison in Kabul, Afghanistan
25 February 2022 by Thijs Bouwknegt
Afghanistan: Challenges of trying a war crimes veteran in The Hague On Tuesday 22 February, the District Court of The Hague closed its latest universal jurisdiction trial, against an Afghan-Dutch national alleged to have been head of the Pul-e-Charki prison in Kabul in the 1980s. But the trial has [...]
MH17 airplane
22 February 2022 by Asymmetrical Haircuts
Russia vs Ukraine at the European Court of Human Rights Did Russia have territorial control of eastern Ukraine when Flight MH17 was shot down in 2014? This was one of the hot issues discussed this January at the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in a case brought by Ukraine and the [...]
Indonesian prisoners (hands on head) are escorted by Dutch soldiers
22 February 2022 by Janet H. Anderson
Indonesia: the Dutch no longer can see colonisation in rosy terms Last week researchers in the Netherlands and Indonesia finally laid out the ways in which the Dutch state both condoned and concealed its systematic use of “extreme violence” during the Indonesian war of independence. In response, [...]
Dutch soldiers fire shells in the Chora region, Afghanistan
13 July 2021 by Stephanie van den Berg
Dutch war crimes in Afghanistan: The Australian trigger An Australian probe has dented the Dutch wall of silence about alleged war crimes in Afghanistan more than ten years ago. Stories from Dutch Afghanistan veterans have begun to surface in the media. It has also boosted a long-runni [...]
Landscape of the region of Deir ez-Zor in Syria
12 July 2021 by Thijs Bouwknegt
Caught killing on camera in Deir ez-Zor On July 2, Dutch prosecutors demanded a 27-year prison sentence for Ahmad Al Khedr for a single war crime and participation in a terrorist group in Deir ez-Zor, Syria. At the heart of the case is the execution of a Syrian officer, [...]
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