A/HRC/44/57/Add.2 race or ethnicity, including due to ignorance, neglect and racial stereotyping. Sometimes those harmed are minorities within the police force itself. 56. The Special Rapporteur learned that 20 civil society organizations and groups representing ethnic minorities filed a complaint against the police in October 2019. 44 In the complaint, the organizations and groups pointed to various reports accusing the police of ethnic profiling and decrying the lack of leadership within the police’s management to take action on complaints and provide protection for whistle-blowers. 45 These complaints mirrored information received by the Special Rapporteur during her visit. In consultations, representatives of racial and ethnic minority communities cited the failure of government authorities to take decisive action, including in high-profile cases, as among the reasons why these communities had little faith in law enforcement and why some thought it was pointless to report incidents of discrimination and intolerance to the police. 57. Shortly after the above-mentioned complaint came to light, mayors of several municipalities released a statement denying a culture of discrimination within police units. The Special Rapporteur is distressed by this response, as well as the suspension of a whistle-blower who credibly alleged institutional racism in September 2019. Urgent action is required to ensure investigation into persisting allegations of institutionalized racism within the police force. D. Counter-terrorism policy 58. The Special Rapporteur highlights two concerns regarding the Netherlands’ counterterrorism policies. The first is the 2017 finding of the Netherlands Court of Audit that it is not possible to evaluate the effectiveness of counter-terrorism policy. This inability to evaluate effectiveness is of grave concern because, among other things, an all too common effect of this policy is to stigmatize ethnic and religious minorities, especially Muslim communities. In turn, this exacerbates polarization, which can undercut national security. 59. The Temporary Administrative Counter-terrorism Measures Act, enacted on 1 March 2017, provides administrative authorities with far-reaching administrative control measures to reject or revoke subsidies, permits or exemptions to individuals whom the Government suspects of being associated with terrorist activities. The Act does not forest out clear and reasonable grounds for suspicion or require judicial supervision or authorization prior to the application of the administrative control orders. The Special Rapporteur received reports that the Act had only been applied a few times, with the authorities applying administrative measures in just 6 of 40 cases.46 In the other cases, the administrative authorities concluded that the evidence was insufficient to link the individual to terrorist activities. 60. The second concern relates to citizenship-stripping legislation, policies and procedures. It has been reported to the Special Rapporteur that a handful of cases have resulted in nationality stripping.47 Although being neutral on the face of it, the Netherlands citizenship-stripping legislation, policies and procedures apply only to citizens with dual nationality and therefore disproportionately affects Netherlanders of Moroccan and Turkish descent. Because of its limited applicability, citizenship-stripping legislation in the Netherlands aggravates stereotypes of terrorism by associating terrorism with people of certain ethnic and national origins.48 The associated policies and their effects are incompatible with international human rights principles of equality and nondiscrimination.49 Furthermore, the Special Rapporteur is concerned that citizenshipstripping orders are based primarily on information gathered by the security services and 44 45 46 47 48 49 12 See https://nltimes.nl/2019/10/23/mayors-deny-culture-discrimination-den-haag-police. https://nltimes.nl/2019/10/21/civil-society-orgs-file-complaint-hague-police-ignoring-discriminationreports. Submission by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights. Ibid. Ibid. See www.ohchr.org/Documents/Issues/Racism/SR/Amicus/DutchImmigration_Amicus.pdf.