After a battle of six years, the Court of Appeal in The Hague today ruled on the appeal of distance mother Trudy Scheele-Gertsen (78) and agency Clara Wichmann (BCW) against the Dutch state. The Court concludes that the case of Scheele-Gertsen is time-barred, so that the State cannot be held liable for the suffering that thousands of unmarried women were affected when they had to hand over their newborn babies between 1956 and 1984. In addition, the Court finds the testimonies of other mothers too varies too much to be able to assess their collective action in terms of content.
We have stated on the map that thousands of babies in the Netherlands were removed from their mothers without permission
The case was about whether the Child Protection Board (RvdK) acted unlawfully by putting pressure on unmarried mothers to hand over their children for adoption. According to Scheele-Gertsen and BCW, adoption was deliberately controlled, without mothers pointing to practical, financial or legal possibilities to raise their child themselves.
In 2022, the court ruled that fifty years later it could no longer be established that the RvdK had made legally culpable errors to Scheele-Gertsen. According to the judge, the pressure that mothers had experienced was rather the result of social and religious relationships.
Scheele-Gertsen and BCW appealed. In December 2024, they argued in their plea that the law was clear at the time: mother and child belonged together and the RvdK had the duty to see.
Remarkable
The United Nations also interfered with the case. In September 2024, two UN reporters sent a delivered letter, in which they stated that “the Dutch government had to do much more to support distance mothers.” The letter also stated that mothers and children are entitled to recovery in such a historical injustice.
The Court is therefore also of the opinion that the case of Scheele-Gertsen is time-barred. What is striking about the opinion is that the Court explicitly recognizes the mothers as victims and also calls on the state to do more in the recognition process. “The fact that the State cannot be held liable does not mean that the fact that mothers of their babies are separated is the fault of the mothers,” the chairman emphasizes.
He also said that “the Court expresses hope that the continuation of the extrajudicial process, such as the conversations between the government and the mothers, will continue with the greatest possible care, energetic and transparency.” According to the chairman, there is no doubt that this is a black page in the history of the Netherlands: “This is a file full of suffering, that is tangible and our judgment does not change that.”
“For me it has been viewed now,” says Scheele-Gertsen afterwards. “In addition to money, baking such a fight with energy costs, it is now gone.” She goes home with a double feeling: sad, but they have achieved something, says Scheele-Gertsen. “With this case we put the history on the map. The fact that thousands of babies were removed from their mothers without permission is something that most people now know. ”
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Adoption
In June the De Winter Commission comes with the results of its distance and adoption in the Netherlands, but Scheele-Gertsen is not very hopeful. “It is uncontrollable for us how exactly that research process went, I thought it was little transparent. Moreover: if the role of the RVDK has not been investigated, then it is a repeat of what we already know. ”
According to Lisa-Marie Komp, lawyer Van Scheele-Gertsen and BCW, it is “exceptional” that the Court of Appeal today pronounced so clearly about the challenged process. “It is a clear message that there is morally a task for the state to resolve this in a way that the suffering of the mothers is recognized.”
Komp calls the statement disappointing, but also expresses her admiration for what the mothers have succeeded in recent years. “Women such as Trudy Scheele-Gertsen and Will van Sebille-who was the face of the Dutch distance mother for years-are very important for our society. They hold a mirror to us by showing us where things went wrong. We should learn from that, so that it doesn’t happen again. “