Establishment Advisory Committee on the Rule of Law and Legal Protection (Van Dooijeweert Advisory Committee)

The imposition of a child protection measure by the court is drastic for parents and children. Children and families must be protected if the government decides to intervene in family life. The government must therefore adhere to the principles of the rule of law and to the rules laid down in international treaties. Government decisions must include legal protection for children and families. They must therefore be able to challenge government decisions and actions.

Image of Adriana van Dooijeweert

Image: © Bas de Meijer

Concerns from the internet consultation

The internet consultation and the RSJ advice of 2021 show that there are concerns about the rule of law and legal protection, specifically with regard to the different organization of powers as proposed in the Future scenario for child and family protection. To investigate this, the clients; the Minister for Legal Protection, the State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport and Alderman Hendrickx, on behalf of the VNG, instructed the Advisory Committee on Legal Protection and the Rule of Law to issue an advisory report.

Tasks of the advisory committee

The advisory committee is tasked with issuing advice on how the legal protection of children and parents must be safeguarded in the realization of the Future Scenario. The advisory committee has 3 main points for attention:

What conditions must be met to sufficiently guarantee legal protection in the Future Scenario throughout the entire process that parents and children can go through?

What is the best way to design an independent assessment and advice to the court in the interests of parents and children?

What does this mean for the role, position and space of the juvenile judge?

The committee will begin its investigation by entering into dialogue with various organizations and individuals within the chain and aims to publish the report with the advice in November 2023.

Composition advisory committee

Chair:

Ms. Adriana van Dooijeweert: Adriana has extensive experience as a judge and chair of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights.

Members:

Dr. Myriam Lückers: Myriam has many years of experience as a judge and advocate general at the Supreme Court and has published extensively in the field of personal, family and juvenile law.

Mr. dr. Joost Huijer: Joost obtained his PhD on research into the legal justification for the use of a child protection measure and has several publications to his name in the field of the law of persons and family law and the functioning of the child protection system.

Contact the committee

The committee aims to get in touch with various organizations in the field in the coming months. This will be done through official support. More information about the Van Dooijeweert Advisory Committee can be found here . The committee strives to collect as much information as possible, but will have to make choices in connection with the limited time.

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