On December 11, 2023, the appeal against the Dutch State and drinking water companies Dunea and PWN in the case about water disconnections for families with children will be heard. Defense for Children and the Dutch Legal Committee for Human Rights (NJCM) do not agree with the court’s considerations for continuing to allow water disconnections, in general, in the Netherlands for families unable to pay the bill. Both legislation, policy and practice are in violation of fundamental child and human rights, according to the organizations. The Children’s Ombudsman and the UN rapporteur on water and sanitation also recently spoke out against water disconnections.
The District Court of The Hague ruled on the case on April 6, 2022. Defense for Children and the NJCM subsequently appealed. The hearing is on Monday, December 11, 2023 at the Court of Appeal of The Hague. Children’s Ombudsman Margarite Kalverboer and the UN rapporteur on water and sanitation, Pedro Arojo-Aggudo, called on the Netherlands earlier this year on Nieuwsuur to stop cutting off water to families with children. They called access to water a fundamental children’s right.
“The government and the drinking water companies cut Dutch children off from their most basic necessity of life and provide no legal or otherwise substantiated justification for this,” said Merel Hendrickx, a lawyer with PILP. “That the court has allowed this, clients find unjustified. The calls by the Children’s Ombudsman and the UN rapporteur reinforce their conviction that judges need to look at this again.”
Grounds for appeal
In cooperation with a collective of lawyers from PILP and De Brauw, a Memorandum of Grievances (notice of appeal) was drafted and submitted to the Hague Court of Appeal. Defence for Children and the NJCM submitted nine grounds (grievances) against the court’s ruling.
In it, Defence for Children and the NJCM set out once again, among other things, that the Dutch disconnection practice is always in violation of the right of children to water, a right that arises, among other things, from Articles 24 and 27 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The creation of this closure policy and its implementation in practice also violates Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, because the best interests of the child are not taken into account. In addition, closure violates the rights enshrined in Articles 3 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR), European Union law and, in any case, the social standard of care as it exists in our national law. This practice also leads to a violation of the non-discrimination principle of Article 2 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, Article 14 ECHR and Article 1 of the Twelfth Protocol of the European Human Rights Convention.
The full Statement of Grievances can be read here.
Note to editors:
Would you like to attend the hearing or more information? Please contact Mylène Tabernal, press officer at Defence for Children – 06 19 31 37 30 / m.tabernal@defenceforchildren.nl
More information, including the Statement of Grievances, the court ruling and other documents, can be found in the ‘right to water’ file.
