-Netherlands: Jehovah's Witness HQ in Emmen, in the Netherlands, lost their appeal.

-Netherlands: Jehovah's Witness HQ in Emmen, in the Netherlands, lost their appeal.

BREAKING NEWS!!!

Jehovah's Witness HQ in Emmen, in the Netherlands, lost their appeal.
The board of the Jehovah's Witnesses has tried through the Open Government Act (Wob) to retrieve all data from the investigation into abuse within the community. That has largely failed. The interviews with victims and other privacy-sensitive data were not provided. The Minister for Legal Protection, Sander Dekker, says he is “disappointed” in the actions of the board of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
According to the minister, the board should focus on creating more openness and recognition for the position of victims, instead of taking legal action, including requesting the interview reports. “I can imagine that this feels like a step back for the victims and the participants in the study. For me, it confirms the picture that emerges from the investigation," said Minister Dekker in response to parliamentary questions from MPs from SP and PvdA.
Traumatic
The study, published early last year, found that the way Jehovah's Witnesses deal with abuse is traumatic for the victims. The organization, with 30,000 members in the Netherlands, often handles abuse indoors. Sixty percent of the witnesses and ex-witnesses who cooperated even gave the handling of abuse a score of 1.

The Jehovah's Witness Community previously tried to block the publication of the study through a judge. That failed.
Since the publication of the report, the board has been trying in all sorts of ways to find out more about the investigation. This concerns, among other things, written in-depth interviews and the raw data of the questionnaires that were completed by about 750 members and former members. Nearly 300 of them said they had been abused themselves.

Utrecht University partially rejected a request to release the documents. The board of the community then started an objection procedure. The board submitted a wob request to the Scientific Research and Documentation Center (WODC), which is the knowledge institute for the Ministry of Justice and Security.

The documents that have been released mainly consist of e-mail traffic and other documents relating to the design of the investigation. Due to the privacy-sensitive information, questionnaires completed by participants and reports of conversations with victims are only accessible to researchers at Utrecht University, the WODC said.
Minister does not want to talk again
MPs Van Nispen (SP) and Kuiken (PvdA) ask whether the minister would like to talk again with the board of the Jehovah's Witnesses to find out the exact motives behind the Wob requests and to make it clear that he stands firm. for the protection of abuse victims. Minister Dekker is not interested in such a conversation. He says that he has already discussed this in a previous meeting. "Given these conversations, and the fact that this has not caused any change in their attitude, I see no point in discussing the motives behind the Wob requests with the board."