The Committee ‘Foute kinderen bestaan niet’ consists of children whose father is suspected to have committed war crimes on the basis of article 1F of the Refugee Convention. These children can never get a residence permit, even though they have been in the Netherlands for many years. Most of them have been in the Netherlands for more than ten years. Therefore they have set up the Committee ‘Foute kinderen bestaan niet’. The Committee enables them to fight for their own rights to get a residence permit, independent of the status of their fathers.

Defence for Children International Netherlands and Justice and Peace guide these children in their actions. Five Afghan girls take the lead: Arita, Susan, Sadaf, Azita and Arezo. Together they have made the booklet ‘I have a right to my own rights’, they’ve given interviews, they’ve told their story at a big TV show called ‘Pauw en Witteman’ and they have spoken at a hearing of the Parliament’s Commission of Justice. And they have been successful! From now on, when children of alleged war criminals who have been in the Netherlands for ten years apply for a residence permit, their father’s alleged past can no longer be an objection to their application. However, the Committee is not yet to be dissolved. A ten year waiting period is too long for a child.

The Committee ‘Foute kinderen bestaan niet’, Defence for Children and Justice and Peace argue for a five year period after which the 1F-objection will no longer be applicable to the children of alleged war criminals.