On the 29th of March 2014, the Dutch constitution celebrated its 200^th birthday. To commemorate this joyous occasion, ProDemos, in cooperation with the Humanity House,  organised the “Night of the Constitution” at the Paard van Troje in The Hague: the international city of peace and justice.  The night kicked-off with a “Pro-Am”(Professional – Amateur) debate on various issues related to human rights. Tim Masselink, a training and research fellow of the Clingendael Institute,  represented Clingendael in a fiery debate about the possibilities of a Dutch invasion of Syria.

All debates were judged by an expert-team jury, consisting of Mariko Peters (Humanitarian Focal Point at the Dutch MFA, Tom de Bruijn (Member of the Council of State) and Hanne Bikker (MFA). After the debate, participants and audience were invited to witness a “Haags college” (lecture) on human rights. The lecturers were Ernst Hirsch Ballin (Dutch former Minister of Justice)  and Natalie Righton, former war-correspondent for the Volkskrant in Aghanistan. It went on with an interesting discussion on how the Netherlands could best help improve the human rights condition in other countries of the world. Interestingly enough, some of the issues that were raised two hundred years ago when the Dutch constitution was implemented are still relevant today.