ABSTRACT
The pursuit of human rights in foreign policy often creates dilemmas of priority over other policy issues, such as the protection of national security. The Netherlands is one of the few countries that have made an explicit attempt to come to terms with such dilemmas. This chapter deals with the way in which it has tried to achieve that goal. At the celebration of the fortieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1988, Foreign Minister Hans van den Broek reiterated the promotion of human rights as a "fundamental" or "central" policy item, a "cornerstone" or "main pillar" of Dutch foreign policy. He interpreted it as an assignment to contribute the utmost to the respect for human dignity, within the limits of foreign policy. Human rights have been a major item in Dutch foreign policy. A very serious dilemma concerns the competing priority of security policy, specifically within the context of East-West relations.
