One must wonder what on earth did the Minister for Legal Protection write to the House of Representatives in order for the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Holland to take out a full-page ad in response.
My translation with a smattering of Dutch and the help of Google follows. If you quote from my translation you should first verify it with the original.
To the President of the House of Representatives
of the States General
Box 20018
2500 EA THE HAGUE
Date 27 August 2020
Topic Response to Signs of Sexual Abuse [within the] Jehovah's Witnesses community
Sexual abuse is a serious crime. The crime has an enormous impact on the victims which can have consequences for years, if not lifelong. The impact will be even greater if the perpetrator can continue freely and the victim does not receive care or support. The likelihood of this is significant if the crime occurs within a relatively closed community, where problems of this nature are kept secret and "self-resolved".
In early 2017, the first signs of sexual abuse were made public within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses. Not only was there sexual abuse of minors, but this abuse was kept quiet by [the elders] within the community and so did not become known to the police. I then informed the [Branch Committee] of Jehovah's Witnesses of their responsibility and insisted that they set up an independent investigation. Disappointedly the [Branch Committee] refused. Subsequently, I proposed a motion to the House to implement an investigation which was carried out by Utrecht University. I provided the results of this investigation to the House of Representatives on 23 January 2020. [Parliamentary papers II 2019/20, 348 43, no. 39]. In addition, in response to a motion of the House, I have carried out research into broadening the obligations of the declaration. I sent this investigation to the House on 21 November 2019 [Parliamentary papers II 2019/20, 292 79, no. 553].
Based on the research into the willingness to report sexual abuse within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses, it has become clear that there are reasons to assume that filing a report is made more difficult by the closed nature of the community. In addition, the problems in handling reports of sexual abuse are also related to the closed culture of Jehovah's Witnesses. This worrying conclusion prompted me to make one last engagement with the [Branch Committee] of the Jehovah's Witnesses community, as I have already informed the House [Parliamentary papers II 2019/20, 348 43, no. 39]. That conversation took place on February 14th. I informed the [Branch Committee] that action is needed and that that action, as in other faith communities such as the Catholic Church, must come from the responsible (church) authorities themselves. Specifically, I have asked the [Branch Committee] to set up an internal hotline which victims can easily find and report and be supported on the way to find professional help.
The board reacted negatively to this in a letter dated 5 March. It found the recommendation for a hotline premature, coming from what in their eyes is false and slanderous research. For the full response of the Jehovah's Witnesses I refer you to the appendix. Instead of taking action the [Branch Committee] chose to challenge the investigation in the civil court. The judge found their challenge unsuccessful, and also on appeal [On August 4, 2020, the court of appeal considered, among other things, that the claim that a correction of the investigation should be sent to your Chamber is not allowed by the constitution]. I think it is incomprehensible that the [Branch Committee] adopts this attitude and it makes it clear to me that they do not see or want to see the seriousness of the situation. The [Branch Committee] leaves vulnerable victims out in the cold. In addition, it makes the path to justice and official aid agencies more difficult for victims of sexual abuse within the Jehovah's Witness community. I don't like this. I expect every board of an organization, including the community of Jehovah's Witnesses, to do everything in their power to combat sexual abuse and support victims. I must therefore conclude that it is now up to me to take further action.
First of all, I would like to repeat my appeal to all victims and others who have knowledge of sexual abuse to report it to the police. Both the police and the Public Prosecution Service take cases of sexual abuse extremely seriously. My earlier call has resulted in the Public Prosecution handling 13 cases so far where members or ex-members of the Jehovah's Witnesses are involved. This has resulted in 2 convictions to date.
The actions that I will describe below are aimed to follow the researchers' recommendations. This is the recommendation to Jehovah's Witnesses to establish an internal hotline and the recommendations of the researchers to the government (inform relevant parties, institute follow-up investigation and introduce legal regulations). All these actions aim to contribute to better protection of the members within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses from sexual abuse by breaking through the closed culture.
Creating a low-threshold facility where victims can easily report and receive support
The [Branch Committee] of Jehovah's Witnesses is unwilling to set up an internal hotline to ensure that victims of sexual abuse within the faith community can easily access expert help and are guided in choosing an agency outside the faith community. This was one of the recommendations that the researchers made to Jehovah's Witnesses. Therefore I'm going to ensure that victims of sexual abuse in closed communities can access emotional, legal and practical support. For this I will strengthen the hotline "Break the Silence" of Victim Support Netherlands. This hotline was set up after the report on the Samsom Committee on abuse in youth care. I have asked Victim Support Netherlands to expand the reporting center with specific expertise on closed communities. The Reclaimed Voices Foundation, with whom I recently spoke, will also play a role in expanding the support structure for victims of sexual abuse within closed communities. I'm going to provide the Reclaimed Voices Foundation with financial resources for their activities to support victims of sexual abuse within the community.
Informing relevant parties and thereby increasing the vigilance of authorities to be able to offer victims protection
I think it is important that other parties are also alert to signals of sexual abuse within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses. That is why I am going to actively review the results and bring it to the attention of the GGD [Public Health Service] and the police, as recommended by the researchers. I have also informed the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science about the recommendation that schools can also play a role in strengthening the position of children and adolescents from the community of Jehovah's Witnesses. They in turn will bring this to the attention of the Inspectorate of Education and the School & Safety Foundation [The School & Safety Foundation supports schools in promoting a safe climate in their social environment. They do this by providing current information and expert advice through the website, training courses, conferences and a helpdesk].
Follow-up research
The research provides an initial picture of the mechanisms that play a role in the willingness to report and the handling of reports within a closed community. However, the investigation could not establish the truth and it is unknown how representative and topical the picture is. The researchers therefore indicate that accurate quantitative follow-up research is important, however difficult this is. The WODC will investigate or follow-up research recommended by the researchers as possible and feasible. In any case, I want to ask the WODC to repeat the current research next year to get a picture that is as current as possible of the situation within the community.
Legally enshrining the moral duty and responsibility of directors within private organizations to report sexual abuse
Ideally, I would have liked to see Jehovah's Witnesses [Branch Committee] ensure that sexual abuse is reported to the appropriate authorities. A movement is, after all, most effective working from the inside. As the [Branch Committee] refuses to take action
I want to impose reporting from the outside if possible. For this I want to introduce a new legal regulation. This scheme serves the social responsibility of boards of private organizations in the event of sexual abuse. It will be a legal requirement and institutional responsibility for directors to report knowledge of sexual abuse. Failure to comply with this reporting obligation will be a crime. This would tie in the findings from the investigation with the extension of the declaration obligation. Some complex issues, however, still raise a barrier before I submit a statutory regulation to the House. The definition of "private organizations" among other things, and the question when reporting must be done, or in what form reporting is required. It is also important that it is clear to whom the report must be made and to what form of sexual abuse the reporting obligation applies. Different sectors and organizations in our society apply standards (whether or not mandatory) to combat the sexual abuse of minors; how does this new arrangement relate to this? And finally, the financial and organizational consequences of such a proposal must be considered. I aim to inform the House about this by the end of 2020. The commitment made during the VAO Zeden of 6 June 2018 is relevant in this context. The members Van der Staaij and Buitenweg have submitted a motion in that debate requesting to investigate whether general guidelines can be formulated for organizations working with (suspicions of) sexual violence in which it is explicit what may be expected of them to meet their moral obligations. I then promised to research the expediency of drawing up such a guideline. In the appendix attached to this letter you will find the inventory that was produced as part of that study. This shows that in every sector attention is paid to the problem of sexual violence and that various rules and instruments are used to combat sexual violence. I maintain that the legal duty to report that extends beyond such a guideline, especially in view of the general and non-binding character of a directive. That is why I do not consider a directive to be added value on top of a duty to report.
Victims of sexual abuse in the Netherlands have, regardless of the community to which they belong, the same right to help, care and justice. This shouldn't be any different for members within the community of Jehovah's Witnesses just because the administration itself is so reprehensible. This therefore requires action from the government for boards of this kind to legally compel organizations to report sexual abuse where necessary.
The Minister for Legal Protection,
Sander Dekker
In this letter there are two appendices. The first is the full response of the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses in Holland to recommendations in their letter of March 5 here. The second appendix is an inventory of how organizations prevent and report sexual abuse which can be accessed here. Both are in Dutch.
