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ASSOCIATION L1901 L'ENFANT ET SON DROIT - E2SD
12 rue Alphand 75013 Paris
Membre du Conseil Français des Droits de l'Enfant

Paris, november 24 1998
The Minister of Justice
of Netherlands
DEN HAAG
Netherlands

Dear Sir, Madam

On Friday november 27, l998 at 10 a.m. an appeal will be heard in the Arnhem Court House in the case of non-violent father activist Joep Zander against a sentence of a fine or five days detention by the Zwolle police magistrate.

This is very surprising to us, for Joep Zander has been known by us, for years, as a honorable man, a peaceful activist for the rights of children to protection by both parents, under articles 2, 9 and 18 of the International Convention of the Right of Children, among other legal provisions. According to our informations, in march l997 Zander insisted to lay a complaint against the Dutch Child Protection Office, East branch. The facts took place in the main Zwolle police station: the assistant public prosecutor on duty said it was unlawful (?) to complain against the Child Protection Office. As Zander insisted, he was thrown out of the premises with unnecessary force and as he wanted to enter again (yet to file the complaint) he was put under arrest, pulled back into the station with unnecessary force and locked up for some hours. A Judge of the Zwolle police court considered Zander's action to be a disturbance of public peace and convicted him for that.

According to our informations again, Zander did not disturb anything, and only wanted to be in the police station for as long as to lay complaint. It seems perfectly lawful to lay complaints against public institutions in police stations. We were told that, when exactly a part of the same complaint was presented one year later, it was normally accepted by the public prosecutor.

Why then did the police refuse to accept the complaint and how can the judiciairy condemn someone for wanting to exercise a legal right? As a spokesman for a legal group of citizen defending family values, Joep Zander has for years stigmatized anti-father discrimination by the Dutch Child Protection Office. Is the police court conviction targeted against such actions or this activist as a person?

According to the European Convention on Human Rights, every citizen is entitled to a due process under the law. It seems that the refusal by the police to register a complaint is a clear violation of Human Rights under that Convention. We hope that such anomalies that seemingly happened in the case of Joep Zander will be dutyfully corrected.

Respectfully yours,

B.Giraud, honorary president of
l'Enfant Et Son Droit
BertrandG.GIRAUD, Association ENFANT ET SON DROIT ALLO PAPA SEPARATION DIVORCE e2sd


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