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About PILP

PILP, formerly known as the Public Interest Litigation Project, is more than an ordinary law firm. It serves as the legal ally for a diverse group of stakeholders in the Netherlands, including NGOs, interest groups, movements, communities, activists, lawyers and academics. Together, they strive to promote human rights, strengthen the rule of law and create a more just world.

Evolution and specialization

PILP was founded in 2014 as a project of the Dutch Lawyers Committee for Human Rights to explore the possibilities for strategic litigation in the Netherlands. PILP is now recognized in the Netherlands as an expert in this field and has evolved in the field of Movement Lawyering. As of July 1, 2023, PILP operates as an independent foundation. For more information about the organization, click here.

Legal successes and victories

In recent years, PILP has achieved several legal victories in collaboration with various organizations, experts, groups and lawyers. Examples can be found in cases such as SyRI, Ethnic Profiling and numerous cases involving the right to demonstrate.

Non-profit and social recognition

PILP is non-profit and is recognized as an Institution for General Benefit (ANBI). Funding is received from funds and individuals, enabling PILP to assist clients pro bono.

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Our Dossiers

Right to water

Netherlands disconnects water from children’s homes In 2016, the Netherlands disconnected households’ water 7,500 times for non-payment, following a peak of more than 10,000 disconnections in 2015. Water companies do not check whether they also shut off children, but this does happen. Because their parents did not pay the bills, children do not have access […]

Discrimination by banks

Muslims and people with names seen as “foreign” are being discriminated against by banks. PILP and Discriminatie.nl started proceedings at the Human Rights Board on February 29, 2024, for and with three citizens who feel discriminated against by their banks.

Right to protest

The right to protest is enshrined in international treaties, the Dutch Constitution and other legislation. PILP is committed to defending and entrenching this fundamental right in the Netherlands.

Ethnic profiling

Ethnic profiling involves the police checking people (partly) on the basis of their ethnicity without objective justification. Ethnic profiling leads to an impermissible form of discrimination and thus violates international human rights treaties.

Travellers’ extinction policy

Roma, Sinti and travellers are the most disadvantaged and discriminated against population groups in Europe, according to the European Court of Human Rights. They have the right to live in a caravan, but there are not enough sites in the Netherlands due to years of active government policy. The waiting time for a pitch is […]

Islamophobia en surveillance

In October 2021, NRC revealed that at least 10 Dutch municipalities had ordered covert investigations into mosques and Islamic organisations in their cities. With money provided by the NCTV, they hired a private research agency, NTA, whose staff observed mosques without making themselves known.

Long Covid at healthcare workers

In March 2020, the first lockdown in the Netherlands was announced. Among others, the hospitality industry, schools and daycare centers were closed. Already in the first few months of this lockdown, tens of thousands of corona infections were detected. The pressure on healthcare rose enormously, and workers from across the healthcare sector had to work […]

Top400

In 2015, the Amsterdam municipality launched the ‘Top400’, a crime prevention programme through which the municipality and chain partners structurally intervene in the lives of children and young adults. The Top400 follows 2011’s Top600, which focuses on young people previously convicted of a crime.

The right to housing

Housing and access to housing are important and topical issues in the Netherlands. Homelessness has doubled in 10 years, young people are forced to live with their parents for a long time, waiting lists for social housing are growing rapidly, and buying a house is not an option for most people because of rapidly rising house prices. The government has a duty to make housing a reality for everyone.

System Risk Indication (SyRI)

SyRI is a risk profiling system, used by the Dutch government, that linked and analysed large amounts of citizens’ personal data. The way the government used SyRI to deploy large amounts of data against its citizens was unprecedented, undemocratic and had serious human rights concerns.

Statelessness

Over 4,000 stateless people live in the Netherlands, recognised as such by the government. In addition, there are over 80,000 more people in the Netherlands who are registered as ‘nationality unknown’. However, in the Netherlands, we lack a procedure to legally establish statelessness, so the step to established statelessness cannot be made. This creates many problems. For instance, they do not claim the Statelessness Conventions, as these only apply to recognised stateless persons.

Big Tech platforms

The current online communication ecosystem is characterised by some very dominant Big Tech platforms and a tracking-based advertising industry that have their own agenda. This makes it harder for citizens, activists and civil society organisations to make their voices heard, hold authorities accountable and develop bold ideas. Freedom of communication is therefore under pressure, including in the Netherlands.

Climate change

Climate change is currently at the center of many public discussions. Following the Paris Agreement, the government must make efforts to limit global warming. In the Urgenda case, the court ruled in 2018 that the State must fulfill the environmental agreements in international treaties, including by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 25% by […]

Integration

Hardening integration policies The integration policies of European member states, including the Netherlands, have become increasingly strict in the last two decades. Migrants have to meet more and higher integration requirements before they are granted a residence permit. Family reunification of migrants of non-European origin is therefore becoming increasingly difficult. In her dissertation Conditional Belonging […]

Bill for the Intelligence and Security Services Act (Wiv)

Intelligence and security services are allowed to intercept the communications of large groups of people without those people being suspected of anything. The services can exchange this data, without looking at it first, with foreign services. These are far-reaching powers that seriously infringe on the privacy of large groups of people. The draft bill ‘Intelligence and Security Services Act’ (Wiv) was drafted to replace the Wiv 2002 and was published and opened for internet consultation on 2 July 2015.

Our Dossiers

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PILP is the legal ally of civil society organizations, movements, communities, and activists dedicated to human rights. Your donation enables us to continue providing this service.