By: Gerard Vroegindeweij
Henk Jan van Schothorst, the driving force behind the non-profit organization Christian Council International (CCI), criticizes feminist foreign policy (FBB).
CCI influences policy at international organizations and member states from a Christian perspective, with an additional focus on themes such as life, family and freedom of religion and education.
What do you think of the Dutch government's attitude towards feminist foreign policy?
“Of course I am in favor of protecting women and girls. Good things are also happening thanks to Dutch feminist foreign policy. However, by attaching LGBTI emancipation as an objective in the same breath, we see what really lies behind this policy. It seems to me like an institutional and ideologically charged agenda, pitting the created against its Creator. These are worrying trends worldwide, leading to new laws and treaties that aim to enforce sexual indoctrination of children in sovereign countries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs knows that this will encounter fundamental objections in largely religious Africa. With strings attached such as financial, legal, and diplomatic resources and manpower, the EU, with the Netherlands in the forefront, slowly but surely push the needy and dependent developing countries to the ground.
An example is the Post-Cotonou Agreement (now called ‘Samoa Agreement’), a 20-year binding trade agreement between the EU and a group of 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries, which are supposed to sign.
Not the Netherlands, not Brussels, but developing countries themselves should be allowed to determine their own national laws. Ideological colonialism and slavery should be history, not a current practice.”
What do you think of the Dutch government including LGBTI emancipation under feminist foreign policy?
“The government says they are there for women and girls, but by including the position of LGBTI people as the main goal in the same breath, problems arise. Then everyone can identify themselves as being of the opposite gender at any time. In practice, these are often men. In this way the biological woman is actually abolished. This overconfident and unnatural self-determination is experienced as threatening and intimidating in Africa and many other non-Western countries. Especially by women.
The Netherlands advocates for a strict separation of church and state. But isn't this policy an expression of a secular belief? The worship of man's absolute self-determination? Complete with dogmas and inviolable rights?
I do not advocate for the need to ban certain views or philosophies. But why does so much government money go to one particular 'religious belief'? Let the government return this money to the taxpayers and let citizens generate private support for their views and goals. Just like our organization does.
Are sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR), which according to the government also includes abortion, human rights?
“The core of human rights concerns the inherent dignity of every human being. Surrounding this is an inner circle of basic freedom rights that protect citizens against government intrusion into their personal lives. We then widen the circle and fundamental social rights come into the picture. That's the outer circle.
By claiming all kinds of things that can certainly have their value and meaning - such as healthcare - as rights, human rights are diluted. In doing so, it causes an overgrow of the core and inner circle of fundamental rights. Moreover, it is wiser not only to talk about rights, but also to discuss obligations.
What is particularly important in SRHR is that the claimed right to abortion conflicts with the recognized right to life. A right to abortion therefore supersedes the right to life. You see the same trend with making equality rights absolute, which puts freedom of movement under pressure.”
What do you think of the efforts to push through gay marriage in the overseas territories?
“Gay marriage is a square circle,” Cardinal Simonis rightly said. But it has now become the hallmark of secular Netherlands. Promoting the undermining of marriage does not help people in the territories who are attracted to the same sex.”
Conservative forces are “subversive forces” in the eyes of the government. What does that tell you?
“How high and mighty can you be? In a letter to Parliament "Progress of the Dutch commitment to gender equality, SRHR and equal rights of LGBTI people in the EU", a footnote refers to me under the heading "religious extremist". It's getting cold for Christians in the Netherlands. They cannot expect backing. And also worldwide, if it is up to the government.”