Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin has drafted a bill that will extend the possibility of detecting and prosecuting genocide. The bill allows the Netherlands to better address war crimes and genocide suspects retroactively and to work closer with international criminal courts. The proposed bill stipulates that cases dating back as far as 1966 could be dealt with.
 
At present, the Netherlands has sufficient jurisdiction to prosecute aliens suspected of international crimes, including genocide. But that law applies only to crimes committed after 1 October 2003. For older cases, the Dutch Genocide Convention Implementation Act applies, whose jurisdiction is limited.

This has attracted hundreds of people accused of serious war crimes to settle in the Netherlands in the belief that they would be protected from legal action. It has given the Netherlands an image as a safe haven for such people, and Mr Ballin wants to change that.

 
Dutch citizens
Prosecution is only possible if the crime of genocide was committed by or against a Dutch citizen. This means in the case of the genocide in Rwanda (1994) or Srebrenica (1995), Dutch prosecutors are not able to bring a charge genocide, the most serious crime under international law. Instead, they are forced to submit charges of war crimes or torture. Therefore, the Dutch minister wants to expand the International Crimes Act. In this way genocide dating as far back as the entry into force of the Genocide Convention Implementation Act - 18 September 1966 - would be covered:

 
"It is unacceptable that an alien who is otherwise guilty of genocide is immune from prosecution, because the Netherlands, before the time of the crime, had no jurisdiction. This is an undesirable signal to victims and their families," the Minister wrote in a statement. However, he added that he will be cautious in granting retroactive effect. Nevertheless Johannes Houwink ten Cate from the Centre for Holocaust and Genocide studies sees the move as a significant one:
 

"The proposal means that in practice it will be easier to bring before a Dutch court those who have committed genocide abroad. It's part of an offensive that the minister has begun to strengthen judicial powers in the Netherlands."

Under the new law, an accused person who is on Dutch territory can be arrested, and that includes suspects who are transisting via Schiphol airport.

The new measure comes as Dutch prosecutors and the special investigation team on international crimes expect more old criminal cases in the coming years. The vast majority of these cases deal with refugees suspected of international crimes, so-called F-1 cases. Examples include the Rwandan massacres, the wars in Afghanistan in 1978-1992 and, in particular, the conflict in the former Yugoslavia.

Cooperation with international courts
The new bill also regulates the extradition of genocide and war crimes suspects to other countries and international courts. Because of the Netherlands' responsibility as the host of various courts and tribunals, Mr Ballin finds it desirable that all international extraditions are possible to countries and international courts for crimes as defined in the Rome Statute that governs the ICC and the International Crimes Act.
 
Furthermore, Mr Ballin has added a provision allowing Dutch courts to take over cases from international criminal tribunals. Under the existing law, it is not possible to try those accused before the UN tribunals for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and Rwanda (ICTR), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) or the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL).
 
The minister states that "the ability of international courts to prosecute suspects of international crimes and justice, is not unlimited. Because of the limited mandate and temporary nature of international courts they focus primarily on the prosecution of their high level suspects. The persons suspected of lesser crimes should be left or transferred to the Dutch authorities."