Dutch State Sued Over PFAS Pollution: UN Human Rights Resolutions Referenced

Eleven groups, including unions of military personnel and volunteers from the fire brigade and the task force SchipholWatch, are taking the Dutch State to court. They hold the State responsible for pollution and health damage caused by the toxic substance PFAS. They believe that the government is not fulfilling its duty of care sufficiently and refer, among other things, to two resolutions on human rights adopted by the United Nations.

Today a summons of more than 150 pages was issued in The Hague. The lawsuit is being filed on behalf of the groups by Knoops Advocaten, who has been working on the case for almost a year with a team of six lawyers, supported by PFAS experts.

There are eighteen applications in the call. The most important requirements are that the State is recognized as responsible for PFAS contamination, that it has an obligation to clean up all contamination and conduct a national health inspection.

The organizations and their experts say that the measures taken by the State so far are “absolutely sufficient to deal with the pollution problem”. Advocate Knoops sees a parallel to the case of Urgenda. In 2019, the State was obliged by the Supreme Court to comply with the agreements in the Paris Climate Agreement. Just like then, the arrows are not aimed at the industry, but at the central government.

Especially in this case, the lawyer Geert-Jan Knoops mentions that the UN resolutions on human rights are included. He believes his case has a chance as the UN will adopt a resolution in 2022 accept it in which a clean, healthy and sustainable environment is recognized as a human right. A new one followed in March 2023 UN Resolutionwhich asks the International Court of Justice in The Hague to give an opinion on whether it can be established as a legal obligation to deal with the climate crisis.

Since then, decisions analyzing this have been made in several countries and international courts, including the European Court of Human Rights and by high courts in, for example, Sweden and in Australia. Now is the time to apply it in the Netherlands as well, Knoops believes.

The eleven groups have different reasons for participating. Firefighter associations are participating because firefighters may be contaminated for a long time by PFAS in firefighting foam. The SchipholWatch task force identifies PFAS in the soil around Schiphol. The West Friesland Elderly Network believes that there is a relationship between PFAS and the poor health of many residents of the town of Westwoud.

The Dutch State has three months to fulfill all the requirements. If this has not happened by July 21, the trial will begin.