PNVD
Partij voor Naastenliefde, Vrijheid & Diversiteit or the Party for Neighbourly Love, Freedom, and Diversity (PNVD, founded 31 May 2006) was a small, Dutch political party that supported some of the objectives associated with Minor Attracted People and liberalisation of Age of Consent laws. It's motto was "sapere aude ("Have courage to use your own reason"). During its existence, the PNVD faced persecution from organisations such as SKS, members of the public and their own state. The PNVD dissolved on March 14, 2010. The party was restarted on 7 August 2020, with a new website.[1] Its former leader Marthijn Uittenbogaard announced that he would not be a part of the reformed party due to a police raid at his home.[2] The party was disbanded again, on the 12th of June, 2022, after political persecution of its two leading figureheads.
Original structure, until 2010
The public membership of this party consisted of the standard three posts required by Dutch politics.
Marthijn Uittenbogaard - Chair | Ad van den Berg - Treasurer | Norbert de Jonge - Secretary.
All three public members had at some point been active in Vereniging MARTIJN, an organisation that campaigns for liberalisation of laws against sex between adults and minors.
Reformed structure 2020-22
De Jonge was joint Secretary/Treasurer, and Nelson Maatman was the new Chair.
Relevant positions
The PNVD sought to have the legal age-of-consent abolished and applied on a person by person basis to the age at which a person can give basic informed consent. They reason that only coerced or dangerous sexual activity should be punished. They also aim to equalize the legal age where one can perform in pornography with the age at which the individual can give consent. Prostitution would be legal at the age when one can consent. The PNVD also aimed to legalize private use of child pornography.
Details of what was the PNVD's broader agenda, can be found in the links below.
Early life and Election 2007
As can be seen from a basic search for the party's name, its launch in 2006 attracted large amounts of publicity and condemnation - acquiring the unwanted nickname "pedopartij" (the party's agenda is broader than just sexual politics). In a May 2006 opinion poll, 82% of respondents wanted the Dutch government to stop the party from competing in the 2007 elections. In June 2006, Norbert de Jonge was expelled from his pedagogy degree course at the Radboud University Nijmegen, owing to his involvement with the party and identification as a pedophile. Members claimed that it may have been possible to obtain public support and even participation from individuals who had no public connection with pedophilia, but these people pulled out at an early stage. It is probable that this lack of support contributed to the bile with which the group was attacked.
The anti-pedophile foundation "Soelaas" even petitioned the courts to ban the party, but the judges ruled in the PNVD's favour. "The freedom of expression, the freedom of assembly and the freedom of association ... should be seen as the foundations of the democratic rule of law and the PNVD is also entitled to these freedoms," the court said in a statement.
The party failed to stand in the 2007 Dutch parliamentary elections, as it did not obtain the 570 public declarations of support from Dutch citizens it would have required. It is probable that this figure would have been possible, had declaration been a private issue with no risk of violent comebacks from members of the public or far-right extremist groups that have targeted the PNVD's public members in the past.
Temporary Dissolution
The PNVD voted unanimously to dissolve on March 14, 2010. The decision followed its second failure to obtain enough declarations of support (570) to partake in the Dutch parliamentary elections.
Reformed PNVD, 2020-22
The reformed version of the PNVD ran for almost 2 years, eventually being dissolved in the summer of 2022, with the following statement (translated):
- "The PNVD was disbanded on June 12. In recent years, especially in recent months, an increasingly distorted picture has emerged of what the PNVD stands for. We foresee insufficient opportunities to bridge the negative image of the PNVD, that has arisen."[3]
The reformed party had been pursued by the same activist lawyer who targeted Martijn, but in this case, his appeals were not a factor (translation):
- "The fact that the curtain falls for PNVD again must feel like a victory for lawyer Yme Drost. He went to the Public Prosecution Service in February to obtain a ban on the party. The reason was a letter from board member Norbert de J. in which he 'openly glorified' child abuse, according to Drost. The lawyer previously managed to enforce a ban on the pedophile association Martijn through the same procedure. Drost went even further. He not only wanted a ban, but asked the so-called National Public Prosecutor's Office - a part of the Public Prosecution Service that is involved in major national investigations - to also institute criminal proceedings against the political party, RTV Oost reported at the time."[4]
This followed the legal struggles of Norbert de Jonge, Marthijn Uittenbogaard and Nelson Maatman, who was arrested after seeking political asylum in Mexico, shortly before the dissolution. All had been threatened with months in jail for "continuing" the activities of Vereniging MARTIJN. Shortly after the dissolution, Uittenbogaard, De Jonge and some others were arrested in Ecuador, with De Jonge being deported immediately.[5] People in the MAP Movement have generally reacted with incredulity towards the behavior of the three (now all former PNVD) activists who fled The Netherlands during this period. Maatman did, however receive some support on Free Speech Tube, and was given limited anti-defamation assistance by Newgon Organization - with a banner appearing at the top of every page of Newgon.net.
External Links
Translations
References
- ↑ https://www.trouw.nl/gs-bd353ac6
- ↑ https://www.rtvoost.nl/nieuws/325084/Oud-voorzitter-pedoclub-Martijn-trekt-zich-uit-angst-terug-uit-nieuwe-politieke-partij-Ik-overweeg-te-emigreren
- ↑ PNVD site closure message: Disbanded for a second time
- ↑ AD.NL Article (in Dutch) concerning PNVD's second dissolution in 2022
- ↑ Telegraaf translation re. Ecuador arrests (**Google**)