Hotline Abuse
Identification
Meldpunt Misbruik
Identificatieplicht = Hotline Abuse Identification.
Welcome to the
Dutch campaign against compulsory identification.
On 1 January 2005 a
new law on compulsory identification, known as the 'Wet op de uitgebreide
identificatieplicht' came into force in the
We, the Meldpunt
Misbruik Identificatieplicht started with a group of volunteers to gather
information about the consequences in daily life of compulsory identification.
We believe that the new law with its unclear restrictions will have no effect
on the reduction of crime or fraud, but introduce additional problems such as
discrimination, and the abuse of power. We believe that it also leads to
function creep. The new law is strongly connected with other political measures
such as the introduction of the (new) Citizen Service Number and the
biometric passport and registration in municipal databases. It is also the
intention of the Dutch government to build a central database with the
biometric details of every identity card and passport holder. These new
measures could be compared with the identity card bill in the
The 'Wet op de
uitgebreide identificatieplicht' was strongly criticised by the Dutch Legal Bar
Association, the Dutch Order of Lawyers, the Data Protection Authorities and
the Youth Council. In the opinion of the Data Protection Authorities there was
no social pressing need as required in article 8 of the European Treaty of
Human Rights. Also the London-based human rights watchdog Privacy International
has warned that Justice Minister Donner's 'Wet op de uitgebreide
identificatieplicht' would violate the European Convention on Human Rights and
the UN Declaration on the Rights of the Child (article 16). Article 8 of the
European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees every individual the
right to respect for his or her private life, subject only to narrow exceptions
where government action is imperative.
Compulsory
identification was introduced as an anti-crime measure but the Dutch Public
Ministry is already admitting that the new law has no noticeable influence on
crime rates. Jurisprudence over the last year shows that a few thousand of the
fines were in fact illegal because there was no valid reason for demanding
identification. In praxis minor offences such as cycling without lights are now
being double fined (one fine for the offence itself and one for not showing a
valid ID). Since the law came into force the rate of missing and stolen ID
documents has increased until 87.000 in may 2006.
In our opinion the
abolition of the law on compulsory identification would be the best the
government could do, to reinvest in the confidence of its citizens but
political decision making in
The EU surveillance
state that spreads out over