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Serious violation of the Lanzarote Convention by the Netherlands
Written question No. 621 to the Committee of Ministers
by Mr Luca VOLONTÈ, Italy, Group of the European People’s Party
In 2008 and 2010, two young Turkish men pressed criminal charges against the recently retired Secretary General of the Ministry of Justice in the Netherlands, Mr J.D. The men claim that they and numerous other Turkish boys were raped and sexually abused by J.D. when they were only 12 and 14 years old. Despite an overwhelming number of available primary witnesses, the claims of these Turkish men never led to an official criminal investigation as defined in the Dutch Code of Criminal Procedure. Only a so-called “exploratory” investigation was conducted in the Netherlands, while J.D. remained in office and in the position to easily influence the prosecution and police.
Recently, the two men lodged an appeal to the High Court in the Hague, calling for the indictment of J.D. They claim that the refusal of the Dutch National Public Prosecution Service’s to investigate their claim is in violation of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (CETS No. 201, “Lanzarote Convention”). Since their first reports, the men have been repeatedly harassed and seriously mistreated in Turkey to make them drop the charges against J.D.
This was not the first time that complaints of chiId abuse against this senior civil servant were not properly investigated in the Netherlands and that the victims were intimidated.(1)
The Netherlands has signed and ratified the Lanzarote Convention which stipulates that victims shall be protected from intimidation and their accusations treated as priority and investigated even if the victim withdraws his or her statement.
Mr Volontè,
To ask the Committee of Ministers…Read more
2012-12-07 06:19:38
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