Human Rights, Development, and Dutch Foreign Policy: the Role of an Advisory Committee

Abstract

The foreign policy of the Netherlands is marked by a strong commitment to co-operative internationalism. For many years now policy has emphasised the following:

• (1) membership in and support of inter-governmental organisations;

• (2) furthering of the development of an effective international legal order;

• (3) development assistance to countries of the Third World (the Netherlands and Norway annually compete for the highest percentage of GNP—about 1 per cent—spent on development assistance);

• (4) respect for human rights, based on international norms such as those contained in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948 and the two UN human rights covenants of 1966.

The author, since 1983, has been chairman of the advisory committee featured in this chapter. The views expressed here are personal and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or agency. Peter van der Vaart commented on an earlier draft.