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A Dutch political party, which does not allow women to stand as candidates for parliament, or allow women to become full members, has been stripped of state funding.
The Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij (Reformed Political Party or SGP), whose policies are based upon strict Christian teachings, will lose around 1.1 million euros a year in subsidies, after a court in The Hague ruled that the party discriminated against women.
UN Convention
In its ruling, the court drew attention to the fact that the Netherlands signed a UN Convention on discrimination against women in 1980:
“By this, the Netherlands committed itself to taking appropriate steps to prevent discrimination against women in politics and public life […] The government has not taken any steps to end the discrimination against women by the SGP, but has even supported [it] by granting a subsidy.”
The court went on to say that, as long as the SGP - which has two members in both the upper and lower houses of the Dutch parliament - refuses to give women equal footing within the party, then it should not receive any public money.
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| Click to listen to the interview wuth Tom Barkhuysen | |
The successful case was brought by women's rights campaigners the Clara Wichmann Institute and seven other social organisations. Their lawyer, Tom Barkhuysen, told Radio Netherlands how the SGP had justified its stance up to now:
“They invoke freedom of religion and freedom of association in order to keep women out of their party because, until now, Dutch case law was very reluctant in this field.”
The Dutch legal and political framework operated very differently from the systems in many neighbouring countries, he explained:
“A lot of countries - like Germany, France, Belgium - and, on the European level, the European parliament, act more severely in cases of sex discrimination with regard to political parties. In Belgium and France, for instance, it isn’t possible for political parties to participate in elections if they do not accept women on their lists. Parties cannot receive funds or subsidies if they do not subscribe to the prohibition of discrimination.”
| In a press statement, the party said it was “surprised and disappointed” by the ruling |
In the Netherlands, a powerful religious tradition lies behind many of its political parties; currently, the ruling party in the coalition government is the Christian Democrats, whose policies are loosely based on Biblical teachings. Mr Barkhuysen, however, doesn’t think that this week’s judgement will have any effect on this facet of Dutch society:
“We have a strong tradition of religion-based political parties and think that’s a very good thing. But all the other Christian parties operating in Dutch society subscribe to fundamental human rights. I think it should be possible for religion-based political parties to keep working and keep being active, and [at the] same [time], not discriminate against women.”
| “You can keep the religious base and you can also base your politics on religion” Tom Barkhuysen |
The SGP has existed for around a hundred years, relatively unhindered. Mr Barkhuysen thinks the case came to court now, because of a debate which arose around the possible formulation of a Muslim political party. The state is attempting to impose a system of equality across all sectors of society:
“A few years ago there was talk of a Muslim party and they also [wanted to] exclude women from this party. There was very strong condemnation from all the other political parties [who said]: ‘We should not allow that in our country,’ but others said, ‘Well, you’ve allowed this same form of discrimination for several years with regard to the SGP’. So, maybe this development caused a change in attitude.”
Such a dramatic slash in revenue could spell disaster for the party. While Tom Barkhuysen isn’t certain that this is the end, he thinks their future looks bleak:
“I don’t know the financial situation of the SGP, but it’s a substantive amount of money. My impression is that it will be difficult to keep operating without problems.”
Tags: Clara Wichmann Institute, Netherlands, Staatkundig Gereformeerde Partij, Tom Barkhuysen