A/HRC/43/48/Add.1 14. The Prime Minister, Mark Rutte since 2010, chairs the Council of Ministers. He is the leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy and is currently serving his third term. The executive consists of the Head of State (the monarch) and the Cabinet, formed of between 12 and 16 Ministers and State secretaries. Myriad political parties are elected to the parliament. Since no party has ever had an absolute majority, the Government always consists of a coalition of parties, necessitating a coalition agreement. The 2017 coalition Government was formed after a record seven months of negotiation and consists of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, the Christian Democrats, the Christian Union and Democrats 66. 15. Religion has historically played a role in Dutch politics, with political parties, including the Christian Democrats, often identifying themselves with religious or belief communities. The rise of far-right parties, such as the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders and List Pim Fortuyn, which have advanced narratives that incite discrimination and violence against religious and ethnic minorities in the country, have also influenced the Dutch political climate over the past 15 years. Coalition-building has necessitated accommodation of some of these views in mainstream political thinking and policy positions, which now pose challenges to the Government’s responsibilities to combat discrimination and promote equality. This includes some anti-terrorism and immigration measures. 16. The State, however, has considered itself neutral in matters of religion since 1796, when the Dutch Reformed Church was formally separated from the State. The pillarization (verzuiling) system was later promoted from the 1800s to the 1960s in response to challenges posed by an increasingly diversifying society. This system segregated Dutch society into four dominant interest groups – Catholics, Protestants, Socialists and Liberals – across religious and ideologically based lines, each having their own social institutions and organizations, including schools, hospitals, media and political parties. 9 However, the principle of State neutrality, which has since characterized State-religion relations in the Netherlands, is sometimes conflated with secularity and reflects the increasing secularization of the groups that constitute Dutch society. 17. Juxtaposed against this backdrop, however, is the increasing visibility of newer religious communities settling across the country. The expansion of these communities, whose manifestation of beliefs tend be more public than those of more established communities, alongside international and national events that have perpetuated harmful stereotypes and conspiracies about them, are reportedly generating unease among wider Dutch society. Increasing tensions have provoked calls in recent years for lawmakers to reassess protections for freedom of religion or belief, and for policymakers to prioritize the integration of immigrants over the protection of their distinct identities. 10 18. Consequently, integration issues have dominated public discussions in the Netherlands in recent decades. Dutch society has been increasingly diversifying since the 1970s with 390 asylum applications in 1975 compared to 20,510 in 2018. Most migrants originate from Turkey, Morocco and Indonesia and asylum seekers from the Islamic Republic of Iran, Nigeria and the Syrian Arab Republic, all holding diverse beliefs, 11 but recent surges in arrivals (58,880) from the Syrian Arab Republic seeking refuge from conflict since 2015 have generated unease, 12 which is exploited by political actors.13 9 10 11 12 13 Arend Lijphart, The Politics of Accommodation: Pluralism and Democracy in the Netherlands (Berkeley, University of California Press,1968); Sophie van Bijsterveld, “Netherlands”, in Religion and the Secular State: National Reports, Javier Martínez-Torrón. W. Cole Durham, Jr. and Donlu D. Thayer (eds.) (Madrid, Universidad Complutense, 2015). Floris Mansvelt Beck, How we do things here: moral communities, integration and toleration in the Netherlands: competing interpretations of liberalism in parliamentary practice, 2000–2013 (2015). Ibid. and CBS, “Fewer asylum seekers, more following relatives in Q2”, 25 July 2019. CBS, “Asylum requests; by citizenship, from 1975”, 31 July 2019. Adam Taylor, “Dutch PM tells immigrants: ‘Act normal or go away’”, Washington Post, 23 January 2017. 5