Dutch House of Representatives formally requests the government to start an investigation re. JW child abuse

by Anders Andersen 34 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Anders Andersen

  Today the Dutch House of Representatives unanimously voted to petition the government to start an investigation into JW child abuse issues.

  The request from the House of Reps. came after JW NL refused to listen to repeated and serious requests from the government to start an independent investigation themselves.

  Now it's up to the government to either accept the request by the House of Reps. and start an investigation, or refuse to do so and explain to the House why. It appears the Minister of Justice is not unwilling to start an investigation though...

  Collection of Dutch news items here
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  sparrowdown

  Cue WT's standard response.

  David Splaine with a whiteboard, a pointer and a list of the three D's of fighting child abuse accusations.

  Deny

  Discredit

  Destroy
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  LevelThePlayingField

  JW children are victims in every country. I hope the Dutch can see this.
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  Anders Andersen

  @LTPF,

  The formal request put before the government explicitly mentions that the investigation should include an analysis of the results of investigations into JW abuse issues that were conducted in other countries.

  They already know about the ARC and the UK Charity commission.

  But of course the Dutch government only has jurisdiction in The Netherlands...
• 

  Doubter

  Think about this objectively:

  The Netherland govt requested an “independent investigation”. Jws said “no” and the reason is because the actual cases (not mere allegations) of child abuse are too low to justify one. They should know as they take the reports and do their investigations. And the govt up to that time didn’t have any proof.

  If we are to be honest here, the media there completely spinned that resfual into an attempted coverup. The Netherland media has been reporting irresponsibly for months, and have not provided any proof of a coverup. None. Just the 200 and something reports that foundation has taken (reports, mind you, not proven cases of child abuse).

  So what WT is doing is putting the burden off proof (rightfully so) on the govt. If they want to investigate, go right ahead. They have that right.

  Just like the ARC, this process will be negotiated. The WT will not under any circumstances allow privileged information to be made public for ambulance chasing lawyers. They didn’t in America with the Lopez/Padron cases as files were heavily redacted, and they didn’t with the ARC.

  Of course, this is not about child abuse — this is merely an attempt at creating as much negative publicity as possible, but WT is no stranger to that and really don’t worry about it a ton.
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  Doubter

  Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was Dekker who said that if WT has nothing to hide, they’d open their doors and do an independent investigation.

  He of all people knows that’s nonsense, and standards of evidence and burden of proof doesn’t work that way. He KNOWS this.

  If 300 people accused me of dealing illegal drugs because I am a doctor who writes prescriptions to sick people, that doesn’t mean I’m dealing illegal drugs.

  Therefore, I am under no legal or moral obligation to offer my patient files to a government. Nor do I have to submit to the requests of a government.
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  Anders Andersen

  @Doubter,

  Surely the Dutch government didn't insist JW start an investigation for no reason.

  The Dutch government isn't known for simply believing the first tabloid that writes a sensational story, and then base the government's official business on that.

  The government spoke with victims and reps. of victims. They looked at JW policies and manuals. The saw the ARC report. They concluded that all that information warranted a thorough investigation into JW abuse issues.

  Instead of coming up against JW, the government urged JW to do their own independent and transparent investigation.

  Not as a matter of criminal trial, but in an effort to help existing victims cope with their trauma, to improve internal policies, and to prevent further victims.

  JW simply refused.

  They refuse to acknowledge they may have a problem, and they refuse to transparantly investigate whether they have a problem or not.

  JW refuse to speak to victims collectively. They only want to speak to individual victims, making the victims powerless again (as it is always a single victims talking to 2 or 3 JW elders).

  JW dont want to cooperate with the government in insuring their child abuse policies and practices are up to current standards.

  Anyway, if the JW really don't have a problem with child abuse, the best way for them to show that was to cooperate with the government and start an independent investigation.

  If there is no issue, that investigation would have shown as much. JW would be in the clear, and the opposers could only shut up.

  But for some reason JW don't like transparency. I wonder why that is?

  The Catholic Church in The Netherlands handled their abuse issues a lot more gracefully.

  As for bad publicity: yes, I think Reclaimed Voices is maximizing publicity around this issue. But not simply to bash the JW. The goal is to create awareness and move the JW leadership to improve their handling on child abuse cases.

  Time will tell how Watchtower NL fares. So far they're losing the PR battle.

  Unfortunately they also haven't improved their policies around abuse issues much so far, and that is the main goal: making JW a bit safer for children, and the rest of the Netherlands a bit safer from known abusers.
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  john.prestor

  Doubter, why on earth would you be implicitly be opposed to such an investigation? Comparable investigations in other countries have turned up many, many cases of child abuse that went unreported.
• 

  Anders Andersen

  Now, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it was Dekker who said that if WT has nothing to hide, they’d open their doors and do an independent investigation.

  He of all people knows that’s nonsense, and standards of evidence and burden of proof doesn’t work that way. He KNOWS this.
  

  Again, this whole case isn't a trial. It's an effort to make sure the JW organization has the proper knowledge, policies and practices to handle abuse cases in a way that's best for he victims.

  The investigation isn't meant to judge Watchower, but to help them improve where needed.

  And of course the minister of justice and his civil servants know this. They're quite prudent when it comes to not suggesting unlawful investigations.

  Therefore the fact that they did insist on JW starting an investigation should tell you that such an investigation would be lawful (just as it was with the Catholic Church, the sports community, etc.)

  If 300 people accused me of dealing illegal drugs because I am a doctor who

  writes prescriptions to sick people, that doesn’t mean I’m dealing illegal drugs.
  Therefore, I am under no legal or moral obligation to offer my patient files to a government.

  Nor do I have to submit to the requests of a government.

  Do you think Watchtower has a moral obligation to their members?

  Do you think Watchtower has a moral obligation to victims of child abuse whose case was handled by JW elders?

  Would you trust a day care facility that had multiple complaints from customers about how they treat children, but simply dismiss those complaints and refuse to provide any transparency?

  How would you view any other church that appears to have systemic child abuse issues in multiple countries, lost or settled dozens of court cases, has thousands of complaints re. abuse, but refuses to acknowledge even the possibility they may have a problem, and refuses to cooperate with the government on clearing up that issue?

  By the way the government wasn't simply requesting files: they wanted Watchtower to review their own policies and procedures and past abuse cases, in an independent and transparent fashion.

  
  
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  Doubter

  Anders,

  You really don’t know what you’re talking about.

  I did not say the govt asked for no reason, I said the reason was basically illegitimate.

  WT specifically told the foundation, victims are more than willing to come to them for “pastoral support”. You’re complaing about that.

  They don’t care about shutting up opposers. WT cares absolutely nothing about winning the “PR battle”. That much is clear.

  And the govt is absolutely going off pure media reports. That’s undeniable. They have no proof. They never provided any.

  No court in Netherlands has ever found illegal activities as regard child abuse.

  Or have they?