Netherlands: Compensation paid
01 March 1993
A recent decision of the European Commission of Human Rights of the Council of Europe could lead to a review of Dutch intelligence legislation. The Commission ruled in favour of a group of ten anti-militarist and peace activists (Vleugels et al.) who were granted one thousand guilders compensation each.
A burglary by activists on 19 November 1984 at the offices of Counter Intelligence Detachment of the Landmacht Inlichtingendienst (Army Intelligence Service) in Utrecht uncovered documents indicating that the military intelligence service held extensive dossiers on many members of the anti- militarist and peace movements and other organizations. The publication of stolen documents led to the reorganization of the intelligence services of army, air force and navy into one central Military Intelligence Service to improve oversight.
Ten people united in their protest against their being registered and filed for access to their files. All Dutch courts rejected their demands, but their appeal to the European Commission for Human Rights proved more successful. The Commission ruled that the 1972 Royal Decree on which the intelligence services functioned did not adequately formulate the conditions under which the military intelligence service was allowed to spy on people and thus violated article 8 of the 1953 European Convention. Specifically the Commission ruled that the tasks and competencies of the service, the categories of people that could become the object of investigation, the circumstances under which this could take place and the measures that could be used are insufficiently indicated in the Decree. Also the safeguards (ie: access to a court, a sufficiently powerful ombudsman etc) fall short of what the European Convention and jurisprudence would require. Finally, the control over the intelligence service is found to be inadequate
The ten complainants consider their victory to be a breakthrough but remain dissatisfied because the Commission of Human Rights did not express itself on their demand to get access to their files. They will therefore again start a procedure in a Dutch court. Although the Commission's ruling addressed itself the 1972 Decree the wordings of the 1988 Law on the Intelligence and Security Services are virtually identical and thus the ruling would seem to bear on the present Law and on the BVD which operates under the same rules. The case has similarities to the 1987 European Court's Leander ruling against Sweden and the Commission's 1989 Hewitt and Harman ruling against the United Kingdom.