On March 21st, 2017, Professor A.E.J. (Jeanette) Satink from Law School of Leiden University, who also serves as a Dutch district judge, visited the Institute for Human Rights. Accompanied by Shunshun Niu, a staff of Beijing Youth Legal Aid and Research Center, she gave a lecture named Family and Child Law in the Netherlands-the Dutch approach on Child Protection to the students.

After the warm welcoming, Professor Satink first introduced a few facts and figured about the Netherlands. She then showed a brief view of the Dutch Law and the Dutch court system. After her introduction of the Dutch Civil Law and the international law, the relationship between the Dutch Law and the international law, she emphasized the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is one of the most important international covenants on child protection. When analyzing the Dutch protection of the Rights of the Child, Professor Satink introduced the domestic violence in the Netherlands, the Dutch field of legislation on child protection and the child protection system in practice, and the Dutch Family Law and Child Protection Law.

The core part of the lecture concerned the Dutch Family Law and the Child Protection Law. Professor Satink emphasized the potential harm to the Rights of the Child in marriage and family abuse, the potential abuse to children, and the legal protection system in Dutch Family Law for children, especially for children in adoptive families and divorced families. With the experience of being a district judge in Netherlands, Professor Satink also introduced several practical cases of Dutch Family Law in protecting the Rights of the Child.

In the Q&A part, questions such as the assessment of the foster family, child protection in juvenile delinquency and NGOs for child protection have been asked and answered thoroughly. The communication was heated.

At the end of the lecture, Professor Satink presented a beautiful gift to the Institution. The lecture then ended successfully.

Written by Yuan Lu