Recently there’s a lot of debate within the Netherlands about the criminality of assistance by someone who’s not a doctor towards the death of a loved one. In the Heringa lawsuit a son has helped his (step)mother who wished to no longer live (considered her life to be ‘completed’) to die at an age of 99. The helper non-doctor risks criminal pursuit and punishment. The central argument of the lobby to establish a more humane approach towards the persevered need is personal autonomy. This article aims to clarify the debate and to stimulate another way of thinking towards the situation of, mostly, elderly who want to decide and act independently regarding their death.

The integration policy of the Dutch government encourages the development of a society where members of ethnic minorities can fully realize their civil rights and can fulfill their social rights and duties. The same is true for priests and clergymen who come to the Netherlands on behalf of the ethnic minority groups that live in the Netherlands. They will have to be prepared for Dutch society and their role as clergymen within the Dutch secular nation. The specific integration programme that the government introduced in 2002 for this particular target group will end in 2014. During the last 12 years this programme has changed considerably as a result of developments in the social and political context that influenced the integration policy of the government. In this paper the considerations and policy changes towards integration in general and more specific towards the integration of immigrant priests and clergymen in the Netherlands are pointed out, together with the changes in the programme entailed by these policy changes.

What freedom of speech do religious leaders have when their religious speech discriminates others? Freedom of religion and freedom of expression may collide with the right to equality (including the principle of non-discrimination). Religious plurality and social polarization in Dutch society induce conflict between these fundamental rights.
This article reviews two legal cases where an imam and a minister were accused of discrimination of homosexuals. From this jurisprudence the authors deduce three principles in judicial decisions weighing freedom of religion and freedom of speech against equality rights: interpretative reluctance, cautiousness and the position of the religious leader.

In the summer of 2014 a book was published at the request of a group of the Church of England’s bishops. It aims to develop strong theological foundations for understanding social engagement as integral to the churches’ theology and spirituality. In doing so it takes, among others, it’s cue predominantly from Catholic Social Teaching. This article provides a review of the book and indicates some important lessons that can be learned from the book for the work of the Dutch Christian-social movement.

The European Court of Human Rights has accepted the French ban on the wearing of a full face veil (burqa) in public based on the notion of ‘living together,’ which in the particular case of France is considered an essential part of the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
In the author’s view, this ruling is problematic as it elevates local – in this case French – customs of the majority to a legal norm. The law is to protect general freedoms, including the freedom to be different from the majority; the law is not to protect certain majority customs. Prescribing what is or is not culturally suitable may be expected from a theocracy or dictatorship, but is not what a legislator in a democratic society should do.