Nieuws van de afdeling

8 June 2007

Secret prisons in Europe are abuse of human rights

'I don't know what is more shocking, the cooperation of European countries in the violation of the European Convention on Human Rights or the fact that these were kept secret from their parliaments'. This was the reaction of CDA (Dutch Christian Democrat) Senator René van der Linden, Chair of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to the report commissioned by the Assembly which concluded that the CIA, in cooperation with NATO and European states had set up secret prisons in which people were illegally confined, interrogated and tortured. SP Senator Tiny Kox, Chair of the United European Left group in PACE, argues that all European governments must now come completely clean over the issue. “This game of hide-and- seek has gone on long enough,” he says.

2 June 2007

High Council accepts SP objections to full body searches at airport

The SP's long-standing objections to the degrading total body searches carried out at Schiphol, the country's biggest airport, have now been recognised by the Netherlands' highest court of law. The 'Hoge Raad' (High Council), in effect the Dutch equivalent of the US Supreme Court or Britain's Law Lords, ruled this week that the body searches, which can include invasive probing of the vagina or anus, were unlawful.

29 May 2007

Secretary of State's warning over EU membership is “attempt at blackmail”

Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Frans Timmermans' assertion that the Netherlands will put its EU membership at risk if it rejects a European treaty for a second time is nonsense, according to SP European affairs spokesman Harry van Bommel. Van Bommel described the PvdA (Labour Party) Secretary of State's statement as “pure blackmail”.

26 May 2007

“At last, a general amnesty”

The SP's parliamentary group has expressed delight at the news that, for a large number of people awaiting asylum, an end at last appears to be coming to a long period of uncertainty. Thousands of people who before 1st April 2001 entered a plea to be granted asylum now know for sure that they can begin to rebuild their lives in the Netherlands. “A number of rather tricky points remain to be cleared up, but the main feeling at the moment is one of relief," commented SP Member of Parliament Jan de Wit.

25 May 2007

Trade in illegal wood is unacceptable

SP Member of Parliament Remi Poppe today conducted an inspection of a garden centre run by Life and Garden, at the invitation of environmentalist group "Milieudefensie" ("Environmental Defence"). Life and Garden, which operates a chain of garden centres throughout the Netherlands, was presented with Milieudefensie's not exactly coveted "Botte Bijl Award" in the presence of Poppe and a number of his parliamentary colleagues. The Botte Bijl Award – a bijl is an axe, but the English expression which best translates "als een Botte Bijl" is probably "like a bull in a china shop" – is presented for outstanding service to the destruction of forests. Life and Garden won it for, amongst other things, their use of illegally-felled wood from Indonesia. Earlier in the week Remi Poppe, well-known for his environmental activism inside and outside parliament, put a number of questions to the government on the issue of illegal forestry in Congo.

25 May 2007

Will war criminals be despatched to The Hague more speedily?

The new Serbian government will do all in its power to bring Serb war crime suspects Ratko Mladic and Radovan Karadzic before the International Court in The Hague, according to an undertaking made by Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) at a meeting in Belgrade. Serbia will hold the rotating presidency of the Council of Europe for the coming six months.

International