Yearbook 2011
Netherlands. According to Countryaah official site, right-wing populist party leader Geert Wilders was released in June on all counts in the lengthy case against him for hate crimes and discrimination against Muslims. The Court found that while Wilders made offensive “fascist” statements, it was not hate crimes because the statements were directed at Islam rather than at Muslims. Wilders called the verdict a victory for freedom of speech. Visit ABBREVIATIONFINDER for the acronym of NED that stands for the country of Netherlands.
The hotly debated immigration issue came into focus when an Angolan who had come to the country alone as a 10-year-old would be expelled when he turned 18 and was considered an adult. Tens of thousands wrote on protest lists against what was seen as inhumane and rigid law interpretation. Others supported the decision, and Wilder’s xenophobic Freedom Party, PVV, threatened to withdraw its support for the minority government if deportation was stopped. In November, Parliament voted down the proposal to allow the young man to stay.
Among both Muslims and Jews, there were warnings that ongoing debates about male circumcision and slaughter methods were actually about the suspicion of minority groups. Proponents of prohibitions, on the other hand, argued that the rights of children and animals are paramount to religious freedom. They wanted to prohibit circumcision of children and slaughter without stunning.
In October, 200,000 from across the country in Amsterdam protested against social cuts. It was the biggest demonstration in decades.
By a majority of over 60%, the Dutch rejected a draft new EU constitution in a June 2005 referendum. The election took place just 3 days after the constitution had been rejected in a similar vote in France. The turnout in the Netherlands was 60%.
After 6 months of negotiations and pressure from NATO, the UN and the United States, in February 2006, Parliament decided to send an additional 1,400 soldiers to Afghanistan. The subject divided the Dutch population, and many parliamentarians demanded that the Dutch soldiers not come under North American leadership.
July 2006 became the hottest temperature in the country’s history at 38 ° C since the beginning of the 19th century when temperatures started to register. Even in mid-August, the temperature had not started to fall. By then over 500 had died – a significant increase over previous years.
In November’s parliamentary elections, Balkenende’s Christian Democrats became the largest party with 26.5 of the votes again, but the second largest party – the Labor Party – was the most prominent (to 21.2%).
In January 2007, it was found that imams were missing in a third of the country’s mosques. The religious heads had left the country in favor of France and Spain as a result of the persecution of Muslims in the Netherlands following the terrorist attacks in the United States and Europe. The moderate imams who had left the country had to some extent been replaced by more radical ones. Muslim leaders appealed to the government for initiatives to curb rising racism.
In 2008-09, the Netherlands developed ever stronger facial features in its dealings with refugees and immigrants and the abolition of basic rule of law guarantees. Part of this development is linked to the increasingly xenophobic attitude in the country. Other parts of the country’s terrorist legislation. Human rights organizations sharply criticized the country’s breach of the Refugee Convention, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the United Nations Human Rights Charter. In May 2009, the state resumed its practice of routinely sending asylum seekers back to Greece, where they are neither properly treated nor routinely returned to their country of origin regardless of the torture they have been subjected to or political persecution. In June, the state began expressly dispatching asylum cases in 8 days. A step sharply criticized by the UN s Refugee High Commissioner, as refugees rarely have the opportunity to reimburse their asylum needs in such a short time. Throughout the year, the state gathered thousands of illegal immigrants and asylum seekers under concentration camps. on barges in Rotterdam harbor. It happened regardless of whether the victims were victims trafficking, victims of torture or underage unaccompanied refugees. The UN Human Rights Commission criticized the Dutch terrorist practice of imprisoning people for up to 2 years, solely on charges of «terror-related crime», vaguely defined in the legislation. In October, the government announced that it would introduce stricter language tests for “non-Western” partners for people staying in the Netherlands. An apartheid move aimed specifically at immigrants from countries outside the West.