Science for Society| This is how to protest!

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Some things are so obvious that you wonder why they did not exist before. The website demonstratierecht.nl (freedom of assembly) is one of those things. The website is developed by associate professor Berend Roorda and PhD student Noor Swart and collects all the information on the right to freedom of assembly. The main goal: making the right to freedom of assembly understandable and accessible for everybody, from protesters to mayors and enforcement officers.

Much ado

Jan Brouwer, one of Roorda’s supervisors, already suggested in 2012 to ‘do something with freedom of assembly’, because there was ‘much ado about that’ and he did not expect that to change in the future. Roorda indeed wrote his PhD thesis on the right to freedom of assembly, and in 2015, he registered the domain name demonstratierecht.nl, thinking it would surely be useful later on. The domain stayed on the shelf for a while, but the words of Jan Brouwer turned out to be prophetic: the right to freedom of assembly became a topical issue and Roorda was frequently asked for his expert opinion by the press, mayors, police, and other parties.

Independent website

In order to not collapse under the many requests—after all, he also needed time for his teaching and research—Roorda decided it would be a good idea if there was a place where everyone could easily find this information. Together with Noor Swart, Roorda submitted a proposal to the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (MBZK) to build an independent website funded by the Ministry. This proposal was accepted and money was made available to build the website and to maintain it for three years. Together with colleague Laurent Jensma, several student assistants, and science communication expert Liesbeth Smit, Roorda and Swart tried to answer the question: how do you present legal matters in the most comprehensible way? The job was completed successfully and in June 2024 the site was launched.

Legal matters on B1 level

An important section of the website is the overview of frequently asked questions. ‘We try to write the answers in B1 level Dutch, i.e. Dutch that is comprehensible to everyone. As a legal professional, that's quite the challenge,’ Roorda says with a smile. The website also contains an overview of all the relevant laws, a library comprising open access publications, and summaries of court rulings on freedom of assembly. Roorda is most proud of the automated advice tool. Everyone, be it a protester, mayor, or enforcement officer, can use this tool to generate an advice tailored to their specific situation. ‘It offers an overview of the powers, rights, and obligations of all parties involved,’ Roorda explains. ‘The right to freedom of assembly includes rights and obligations for both the authorities and the protesters, so it is incredibly important to have the correct information.’

An important source of information

Although the Ministry finances it, the website's content is independent. This is important, because it makes the website a more neutral source for many different parties. ‘When a government itself publishes the information, it will inevitably focus on other aspects,’ Roorda explains. ‘And action groups sometimes don’t trust the authorities.’ Many people find their way to the website: at times of protests, the visitor numbers peak and the site is referenced in the Coalition Agreement and during debates in the House of Representatives. Within the University, people also see the added value of the website, which resulted in a nomination for the Ben Feringa Impact Award.

The foundation of democracy

The right to freedom of assembly is something we should cherish, according to Roorda. Not only because of worker's rights, women’s rights, and other rights we have obtained partly thanks to protesting. ‘An article from 1970 states that demonstrations are “slip roads to the road of representation,” and I think that's a very beautiful quote,’ Swart says. ‘We don't have a direct democracy, but protests enable citizens to influence policy nonetheless.’ Roorda: ‘Demonstrations are sometimes seen as annoying, a disruption of the public order. But look at it like this: how incredible is it that people are free to use this to actively participate in our democratic constitutional state!’

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More information

• Berend Roorda
• Noor Swart
• Demonstratierecht.nl