VIA. Making a difference between Dutch and Dutch.

dinsdag 30 september 2008 16:32


Speech before Meeting of mr Hammarberg, commissioner of human rights, with Dutch NGO's

Remarks by Glenn O. Helberg

Chairman of the Board of the OCaN Foundation

Amsterdam, Monday, September 22, 2008

Mr Hammarberg, Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would first like to thank you, mr Hammarberg, for the opportunity given to inform you and the audience about the Verwijsindex Antillianen (VIA); a reference index for Antillean and Aruban youth in the 0 to 25 age group, who are living in the 21 so-called Antillean municipalities. But let me introduce myself before elaborating on this matter. My name is Glenn Helberg and I am Chairman of the Board of the OCaN Foundation. I do this as a volunteer. I'm a psychiatrist by profession.

1.Introduction of OCaN

As said before, I am Chairman of the Board of the OCaN Foundation, the Dutch Consultative Body relating to the integration of Dutch Caribbean citizens in The Netherlands. OCaN is the official interlocutor of the Dutch government on matters relating to integration for Antilleans and Arubans in the Netherlands. OCaN participates in the National Consultative Body of Ethnic Minorities. The legal foundation of this body lies in the Consultative Body Ethnic Minorities Act.  OCaN does not represent the Netherlands Antilles and Aruba, which form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

2. What is the VIA

The VIA is an electronic database with information on Dutch Caribbean youth at risk of the first and second generation. The risk factors are: being unemployed, a school dropout, with housing problems, debts, health problems, and suspected of criminal activities (‘contact with police or justice'). The VIA is aimed at helping, through a so-called personal approach, young Antilleans or Arubans with multiple problems, or tackling  criminal behaviour within this group, that is over represented in the statistics of suspicious delinquents. The VIA could improve the information position of the municipalities and police. The VIA is also an instrument to reach the goals, set in the so-called administrative arrangements 2005-2008 ("bestuurlijke arrangementen") between the Central government and the local governments of the 21 Antillean Cities in The Netherlands. Antillean cities are cities where more than 1% of the population consists of Antilleans or Arubans. The goals are to make the overrepresentation of Antilleans and Arubans in unemployment rates, school drop-out, and criminality drop by 30 to 50 percent.

The particular data according to the Dutch Law Protection Personal Dates (Wbp) concern:

  1. ethnic origin (which falls within the broader definition of race),
  2. health
  3. criminal data.

The databank is an initiative of the Minister for Integration policy, on request of the mayors of the 21 Antillean cities in the Netherlands. December 2006, the Dutch Data Protection Authority (CBP) gave an exemption for the prohibition of the registration of ethnicity within a specific database, arguing that the necessity has been proven. To our knowledge, this is the first time in Dutch history that this exemption has been granted. The VIA is a pilot project for two years. After a positive evaluation, the VIA can be measured in a specific law, or general law.

3. Why a VIA

Why is the VIA necessary? The Minister and the Antillean cities hold the view that there are serious and urgent problems caused by young Dutch Caribbean. These youngsters are ‘mobile' ("city hoppers") and ‘do not register' themselves within the basic administration of the municipalities (GBA). For that, they are ‘not to be found' by the social institutions that can help them, and they cannot be caught by the police. A ‘personal approach' is only possible when the information position of the 21 Antillean cities, and the police and justice in the Netherlands, has been improved by a specific database.

4. Complaints by OCaN

Nevertheless, OCaN has a different opinion on the VIA and making a difference between Dutch and Dutch.

  1. We think that VIA is a strong violation of classic rights: human rights (equal treatment), personal freedom (house right), and the right to respect of one's privacy. Moreover, the VIA can lead to arbitrariness and stigmatizing, other so-called ‘special interests' that has been weighted.

  1. We believe that the VIA gives the authorities an extra opportunity to localize and condemn a specific group (‘ethnic origin') of Dutch citizens with the Dutch nationality, that is the young Antilleans and Arubans, who supposedly are overrepresented in the statistics of suspicious delinquents.

  1. The VIA can also be an instrument to ban these Dutch nationals from the European territory of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. At this moment, the government is designing a proposal of law persona non grata for Antilleans and Arubans in the Netherlands, and European Dutch in the Antilles or Aruba. The proposed law admission and expulsion Antilleans and Arubans (2006) strengthened us in this fear. VIA gives the authorities the opportunity to exchange particular data like race, ethnic origin, health (physical as well as mental), the personal civil service (fiscal) number, and groups of friends and families.

  1. The VIA can set a dangerous precedent. Last week the minister of internal affairs Guusje ter Horst proposed to register ethnicity of ‘foreign' criminals on a broad scale. The mayor of Amsterdam Job Cohen opposed the proposition in a reaction. It seems that the political discussion about ethnic registration has started.

  1. The arguments concerning the necessity as well as the principles of proportionality and subsidiarity, are doubtful. There is no evidence of the effectiveness of a racial database. Besides, we think that the decision of exemption has not been examined in conformity with European racial and human rights laws. The general reference index VIR includes all youngsters at risk. Many municipalities in the Netherlands are already experimenting with this VIR. Ironically, two months ago the Dutch Database Protection Authority (CBP) advised negatively in the direction of the law proposal General Reference Index Youth at risk (Verwijsindex Risicojongeren).

Experts and international human rights bodies and initiatives like ECRI and OSJI underlined OCaN's point of view.

5. Legal actions of OCaN

The hearing commission of the Database Protection Authority (CBP) did not change their point of view, after a hearing with OCaN in march 2007. Nevertheless, in July 2007 the national court in The Hague declared our complaint valid. The court said, that the necessity had not been proven: In accordance with the court, there is an alternative: a general index with criteria like ‘mobility', non-registration, and multiple problems. The registration of ethnicity is not necessary in this type of index. All three parties (CBP, Minister/mayors of 21 Antillean cities / OCaN) appealed. On the 3rd of September 2008 the Higher Court (Raad van State) - declared all complaints of the Minister/CBP valid. The complaints of OCaN have been rejected. At this moment we have the intention to refer the question before the European Court of Human Rights.

6. Our opinion

In our opinion there can be no relation between race and criminal behaviour. As an Antillean professor of clinical chemistry once explained: "The genetic differences between the five human ‘races' are much smaller than the differences within one single race": The genetic differences between the five human races range from 3 to 5 percent, while the genetic differences between individuals of the population of one single race range from 93 to 95 percent.

We know that demographic and social-economic factors are much more important. Besides, in our view segregation, discrimination and social exclusion in the public sphere, the housing market, the living circumstances, the labour market, and in the educational and health system can also stimulate stress among ethnic minority groups and migrants with a lower social-economic status (SES). This can have a bearing on the psychological health among migrants groups. For example, in The Netherlands there are many more Moroccans with schizophrenia than European Dutch. Most of all, we are concerned about the psychological effects on our children at school places. Race registration does not fit with the young urban culture. As adults, and politicians, we ought to know this. A better alternative to prevent the suspected ‘mobility', ‘non-registration' and ‘multi problems' is a policy of housing and education for young, low-class Dutch Caribbean newcomers. A strong, long term antipoverty strategy - with a focus on health and education - and measures against social exclusion in the Kingdom of The Netherlands should combat the ‘culture of poverty' and survival strategies handled by the poor, which we know already for many generations.

Thank you all for your kind attention.

OCaN Foundation

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