UN SG commends Netherlands for advocating rule of law, international justice News
UN SG commends Netherlands for advocating rule of law, international justice
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[JURIST] UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon [official profile] on Monday commended the Netherlands for advocating the rule of law and international justice. Speaking at The Hague [official website] during a press conference held jointly with the Dutch foreign minister, Ban emphasized the value in solidifying the relationship between the UN and the Netherlands. In his statement [transcript], Ban emphasized the role the Netherlands plays in international issues:

The Netherlands is one of the biggest donor countries to UNDP, UNICEF, UNFPA and all the Specialized Agencies and has generously contributed to humanitarian assistance for Syrian refugees and also Mali. We sincerely hope that the Netherlands will continue to do so, despite the current economic situation in European eurozone areas.

Ban also praised the Netherlands as “a champion of human rights and gender equality.”

Last year a Dutch court ruled that three Congolese witnesses who testified in an International Criminal Court [official website] (ICC) case against militia leader Germain Katanga must be allowed to remain in the Netherlands to seek asylum. Also in 2012 the Supreme Court of the Netherlands [official website] approved [judgment, in Dutch] the extradition of a Dutch-Pakistani man suspected of preparing terrorist attacks on an American military base in Afghanistan in 2010. In 2011 the District Court of the Hague [official website] ruled that the Dutch government must pay damages [court materials, in Dutch] to one survivor and seven widows of men killed by Dutch troops during a 1947 massacre in Indonesia [NRC Handelsblad backgrounder].

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