The authorities in the Netherlands have made significant progress tackling racism and intolerance in recent years but a number of issues still give rise to concern, according to Council of Europe experts.
The European Commission against racism and intolerance (ECRI) has published its latest monitoring report on the Netherlands, focusing on equality and access to rights, hate speech and hate-motivated violence, and integration and inclusion.
Areas of progress
The report highlights a number of positive legal developments, including constitutional protections against discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation, the strengthening of the law on citizenship education - concerning both primary and secondary levels - and various legislative developments to help tackle hate crimes.
ECRI has also welcomed the fact that refugees are no longer required to finance their own language and integration courses, and the authorities have made efforts to improve the participation of refugees in the labour market.
Furthermore, significant progress has been made in acknowledging the role of various Dutch stakeholders in the history of slavery, according to the report, and additional support schemes for communities of descendants of enslaved people are in the pipeline.
Hate speech rising in Dutch media and football
However, despite the progress achieved since its previous report on the Netherlands, ECRI notes that some issues continue to give rise to concern.
The report underlines that hate speech has reportedly become more widespread, notably in politics, the media, football and online - and particularly on social media. Political hate speech against specific groups often goes unchallenged, says ECRI, and the under-reporting of hate crimes continues to be a key issue.
Concerning the integration and inclusion of migrants, ECRI highlights long waiting times for applications for family reunification. The report also states that refugees awaiting municipality housing were accommodated in temporary emergency facilities in which conditions were considered to be substandard.
More generally, ECRI notes that people of African descent report continuing inequalities and structural discrimination in everyday life in the Netherlands. There are also reports of anti-Muslim prejudice and discrimination gaining further ground and the situation of Roma, Sinti and Travellers is said to remain difficult.
Furthermore, ECRI's report states that discriminatory profiling practices have come to light in a number of areas. Government use of algorithmic risk-profiling systems is said to have had discriminatory effects on various groups in society, notes ECRI, although several measures have been taken to develop appropriate safeguards.
Today's report includes a number of recommendations to the Dutch authorities. Two priority recommendations, related to LGBTI equality and racial profiling by law enforcement officials, will be the subject of follow-up by ECRI within two years.
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