With this bill, Minister Rijkaart of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations and Minister Van Oosten of Justice and Security aim to prevent abuse of the right to demonstrate and make it easier to identify and prosecute rioters and other offenders.
Minister Rijkaart: “Everyone in the Netherlands must be free to express themselves; demonstrating is a fundamental right. But to exercise this right properly, demonstrations must be peaceful. We see that people often wear face-covering clothing during demonstrations. Sometimes for good reasons, but often to intimidate or disrupt deliberately. Look at the recent riots in The Hague. The Netherlands is an open society, and that is why we demonstrate openly. Abuse harms those who want to make their voices heard. That is precisely why we are introducing this ban.”
Minister Van Oosten: “The small group that abuses demonstrations to riot and vandalize must be punishable. They exploit the possibility to be anonymous at a demonstration and thus can break the law with impunity. A ban on face-covering clothing helps in identifying these lawbreakers.”
With this bill, the cabinet responds to the House of Representatives desire to introduce a ban on face-covering clothing at demonstrations. The ban applies to all forms of face-covering clothing, except when it is genuinely necessary to protect someones safety or when there are other compelling personal reasons. This specifically concerns situations where demonstrators cover their faces out of fear of reprisals from abroad.
Violation of the ban can be punished with imprisonment of up to two months or a fine of the second category (up to €5150). The maximum penalty is tailored to the context of exercising a fundamental right, ensuring that the threat of punishment is not so severe that it discourages people from exercising their right to demonstrate (the so-called chilling effect).
Next steps
No new law will be created to regulate this ban, but the Public Assemblies Act will be amended. The proposal is currently being submitted to the police, the Public Prosecution Service, the Council for the Judiciary, the Dutch Association for the Judiciary, the Dutch Bar Association, the Netherlands Association of Mayors, and the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. The proposal will also go into consultation this month.