Multilateral forums

The Netherlands and NATO

Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty, which established NATO in 1949, states that the Parties to the treaty will take action, individually and in concert with the other Parties, to maintain the security of the North Atlantic area. Since the Cold War, NATO’s core tasks have been extended beyond collective defence to include, for instance, preparedness to contribute to conflict prevention and crisis management. The Netherlands has contributed proportionately to the NATO missions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Libya, as well as the NATO operation Active Endeavour, in which NATO vessels patrol the Mediterranean to detect and prevent terrorist activities. 

The Netherlands and the OECD

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s mission is to promote, through the provision of information, agreements and regulations that foster an open global economy, sound investment options and international rules aimed at reducing unfair competition in world trade.
The Netherlands regards the OECD not simply as a think tank for largely financial and economic issues, but also as an organisation where shared values and standards are established and the foundation laid for future global agreements. Confidential discussions, country surveys and peer review combine to create international cooperation with a wide-ranging influence.

The Netherlands and the Council of Europe

In addition to all the member states of the European Union, the members of the Council of Europe include other countries, such as Russia and Turkey. Membership obliges states to respect and observe fundamental values relating to democracy, the rule of law and human rights. The Netherlands became member of the Council on 5 May 1949 and is a founding member of the organisation. The Netherlands is represented at the Council of Europe by a Permanent Representation and works to promote the Council of Europe’s mandate and cooperation between the Council and other international organisations. The Netherlands gives priority to externe link: these monitoring bodies mechanisms of the Council.

The Netherlands and the United Nations

The Netherlands is one of the original signatories to the UN Charter (1945). Within the UN, the Netherlands works to promote the development of the international legal order, to improve the human rights situation, and to foster environmental protection and sustainable development.
The Netherlands’s active involvement in the UN takes the form of daily contacts with the UN through the Permanent Missions at the UN headquarters in New York, Geneva, Rome, Paris, Vienna and Nairobi, which function as a conduit for Dutch standpoints. However, much preparatory work also takes place in an EU framework, because member states of the European Union try where possible to align proposals and voting behaviour.

In addition to the compulsory financial contribution (1.855% of the UN budget) the Netherlands also makes voluntary contributions to various UN agencies active in the field of development cooperation. It makes these contributions conditional on the UN using pledged funding as efficiently as possible and UN agencies optimising the way in which they work together.

From the start, the Netherlands has played a leading role in promoting UN reforms, especially the One UN concept, with a view to this becoming the new standard working method of the UN. The decision to set up a new UN Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women is also largely due to lobbying efforts by the Netherlands, like-minded countries and the coalition of women’s organisations for Gender Equality Architecture Reform (GEAR).

Because of the size of Dutch financial contributions, the Netherlands plays an active role in the Multilateral Organisations Performance Assessment Network (MOPAN), a network of 16 donors with a common interest in assessing the organisational effectiveness of the multilateral organisations they fund. This takes the form of providing an overview of the objectives and mandate of individual UN agencies or international financial institutions, of their organisational structure and activities, and of Dutch policy regarding the organisation in question.

The Netherlands and UN peace operations

With an annual contribution of around €100 million, the Netherlands is one of the larger financial donors to UN peace operations, though it occupies a lower ranking when it comes to contributing manpower. Manpower contributions to such operations tend to take the form of secondments of military personnel and police officers to staff jobs on peace missions.

In the past the Netherlands has been an important troop-supplying country, taking an active part in UN peace missions from the Korean War in the early 1950s to missions like UNIFIL in the 1970s and 1980s, and UNTAC/Cambodia and UNPROFOR/Bosnia in the 1990s.

At present, the Netherlands increasingly seeks to help maintain the international legal order by contributing to international crisis management operations through NATO and the EU, rather than the UN – a trend that applies to all NATO and EU member states. As a result, Western nations do not rank among the countries currently supplying the most troops.

Although the participation of Dutch troops in UN missions is not ruled out, it is subject to provisos about the nature of a mission, the command structure and the size of the contribution made by like-minded countries. Such missions must also be active in an area that falls within the Dutch preference for aid to certain regions. Finally, the Netherlands stresses the need for the UN to make progress with its institutional reforms.

Responsible ministry