Since the abolition of the Woonwagenwet in 1999, the Netherlands no longer had a national policy on caravan sites. As a result, many municipalities pursued, or had pursued, a phasing out or phasing out policy regarding caravan sites. Read more about these forms of woonwagenbeleid in PILP’s file page.
In 2016, a case was filed with the Human Rights Board about the residential caravan policy of the Municipality of Gouda, and indirectly about the entire national policy. On October 19, 2016, PILP intervened in this case at through a letter to the College. In the letter, PILP elaborated on the human rights framework applicable to this Kingdom policy.
On February 16, 2017, PILP was present at the hearing of the Human Rights Board on the residential caravan policy in the municipality of Gouda and the central government. During this hearing, the College explicitly referred to the views set out in PILP’s letter.
Finally, on May 1, 2017, the Human Rights Board ruled that the central government discriminates against caravan dwellers with the existing policy. On July 13, 2018, the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations presented the new policy framework for the caravan policy. This new policy framework officially ends the extinction policy. Locally, however, the extinction policy is not yet off the table everywhere, let alone reversed. PILP and the NJCM therefore continue to actively fight for the human rights of the inhabitants of caravans.