The Dutch government did not discriminate against the Jehovah’s Witnesses by conducting an investigation into sexual abuse within the Jehovah’s Witnesses in 2018 and 2019 — and not within other religious communities. The court in The Hague has this judged on Wednesday. There was a clear reason for research into the Jehovah’s at the time, but this was lacking among other religious communities, according to the court.
From the relevant research from Utrecht University In 2020 it became apparent that the way in which Jehovah’s Witnesses deal with sexual abuse within their own circles is traumatic for victims. Of the 751 (former) members investigated by the university, almost three hundred were victims themselves. The investigation followed reporting Fidelitywhich opened the newspaper in the summer of 2017 with the headline ‘A paradise for pedophiles’.
Victims of sexual abuse receive little help within the Jehovah’s Witnesses, researchers concluded. Reports of abuse are often handled internally by a committee of male managers — which only occurs once there are two witnesses to the abuse or the perpetrator has confessed. If that is not the case, then the matter remains “in Jehovah’s [Gods] hands”. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have tried in vain to prevent publication of the “factually incorrect” research results.
The actions of Sander Dekker (VVD), former Minister of Legal Protection, were also before the judge. He commissioned the research from Utrecht University in 2018. According to the Jehovah’s, Dekker made stigmatizing statements about the religious group, but according to the judge, the statements were “within the limits of what is permissible.” Dekker expressed his disappointment in the House of Representatives about the lack of action by the Jehovah’s to improve the handling of abuse reports.
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