On the occasion of the celebration of 10 December 2009, International Human Rights Day, Maxime Verhagen, the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, would like to emphasize the way the Netherlands values the importance of the work of Human Rights Defenders through a short message.

Below you will find the message, which refers to the intention to publish the EU guidelines concerning Human Rights Defenders on all Embassy websites, as well as the text of the guidelines concerning Human Rights Defenders.

For more information you can visit the  EU Human Rights website, where you can also read through the various  EU guidelines, among others those for the Human Rights Defenders.

 Messsage of Maxime Verhagen

 Guidelines concerning Human Rights Defenders