Case law
College voor de Rechten van de Mens
The Netherlands Institute for Human Rights assesses complaints about discrimination and unequal treatment and tests them against Dutch equal-treatment legislation. Its decisions are published at oordelen.mensenrechten.nl, searchable by ground of discrimination — including sex, race, religion, age, disability or chronic illness, sexual orientation and nationality — and by domain, such as employment, goods and services, housing, education and social protection. Complainants are anonymised. For equal-treatment questions this is the most focused collection available: the Institute does little else, and has done so for years.
Go to the publisher’s websiteWhich products consult this source
LEO — Direct consultation
The source is consulted directly while the work is being done.
BEVER — Direct consultation
The source is consulted directly while the work is being done.
Availability depends on your organisation’s configuration and access rights.
What this source does not give you
A decision of the Institute is not a court judgment and is not legally binding. The Institute cannot impose a sanction, a fine or a measure, and produces no enforceable title; for that you have to go to court. Its decision moreover concerns equal-treatment legislation only: on the employment-law, administrative-law or damages side of the same case the Institute does not rule.
Frequently asked questions
- Is a decision of the Institute the same as a court judgment?
- No. The Institute is not a court and its decision is not legally binding. As an expert body it establishes whether discrimination occurred, but it cannot attach consequences to that: no sanction, no damages, no injunction. Anyone who wants an enforceable outcome must still go to the civil court afterwards. Advice should state that distinction explicitly rather than let it disappear into the phrasing.
- What, then, is a decision worth?
- Authority. The decision carries weight with organisations and with the courts: if a case proceeds to the civil court, that court must take the Institute's decision into account in its assessment. It also has effect without litigation — the Institute reports that in roughly eighty per cent of cases where discrimination was established, measures follow, such as an apology or an adjustment of the organisation's policy.
- What can I search on in the decisions database?
- By ground of discrimination and by domain. The grounds range from sex, race, religion and age to disability or chronic illness, sexual orientation and nationality; the domains from employment and goods and services to housing, education and social protection, with subdivisions within each. Those two axes together make it practical to find what the Institute has previously decided about a comparable situation.
- How long does a procedure at the Institute take?
- The Institute indicates that the path from complaint to decision takes about fifteen months. The hearing itself usually lasts around an hour, with the written decision following roughly six weeks later. That matters when weighing this route against going to court, particularly where a limitation period or an ongoing employment relationship is in play.
- What do LEO and BEVER use this source for?
- Both query the decisions live at the source. For a question about unequal treatment — in recruitment and selection, in terms of employment, in access to goods and services or in accessibility — this shows which line the Institute previously took and which facts were decisive. In the answer the decision is labelled as a decision of the Institute, not as case law.