Three Dutch Moroccans have filed a complaint with the UN human rights commission against the Netherlands.  The claimants allege that the Dutch state failed to protect them from incitement to hatred and discrimination instigated by Geert Wilders, the party leader for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy.

In 2009, Mr. Wilders was charged with inciting hatred and discrimination for what were alleged to be various anti-Islamic statements.  Despite the Dutch public prosecutor’s decision not to pursue the case, in 2010, an Amsterdam court ruled that the case should be heard.  In June of this year, Mr. Wilders was acquitted of all charges.  The judged ruled that Mr. Wilders’s comments were “acceptable within the context of public debate.”  The judge further explained that although the comments were “gross and denigrating,” they did not give rise to hatred.  For more on the outcome, see this previous blog post from June 23rd.

Wilders and his proponents view the ruling as a victory for free speech and an important affirmation for the right to criticize Islam.  Conversely, the complainants argue that the prosecution’s reluctance to pursue the case limited the judge’s ability to consider both sides of the legal argument and therefore gave rise to an unfair trial.

As discussed in the previous post, the current filing is lawfare in the form of a continuing attempt to block public debate on an issue of public interest—a direct assault on free speech.  Moreover, the complaint is intended to delegitimize the Dutch legal system and to undermine the Dutch state’s sovereignty by subordinating the nation’s domestic laws, passed through a legitimate democratic process, to the laws of an international body.  There is no indication that the prosecutor’s reluctance to prosecute in the first instance had any prejudicial impact the court’s holding.  Furthermore, the allegation that Dutch law is ineffective in protecting groups from hate speech is unfounded. There is no evidence of any judicial bias in interpreting the relevant Dutch law in this case, and bringing the same case to the UN commission seeks to erode the sovereignty of the Dutch judicial system in protecting its citizens.

**Joshua Morey is a legal intern at The Lawfare Project and a second-year law student at Brooklyn Law School.