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<strong>Child</strong> PornograPhy First report oF the Dutch NatioNal rapporteur
occur. 375 In addition to this, the Public Prosecution Service also has the opportunity to postpone the
decision as to whether prosecution will have to take place, for a certain amount of time, subject to
a number of set conditions: a conditional decision not to prosecute. This route of conditionally not
prosecuting also provides the Public Prosecution Service with opportunities to settle cases. The <strong>Child</strong>
<strong>Pornography</strong> Expertise Centre is therefore seeking new methods of dealing with as many cases as possible
by means of the Niets Doen Is Geen Optie (INDIGO) [Doing Nothing is not an Option] initiative. 376 The
intention behind this is to allow sufficient time and attention for complex and serious cases, without
allowing suspects of relatively light cases to end up receiving minimal attention. For these cases, which
involve the possession of and the gaining of access to child abuse material, alternatives to prosecution
are then sought. 377 The project such as the one taking place in Rotterdam still needs to be evaluated.
Alongside this, a barrier model is currently being developed in order to be able to intervene at the
‘front-end’ of the problem and thus to prevent possible child pornography offences. 378 (See §3.8.4).
A plan for the Public Prosecution Service with regard to combating child pornography is expected to
be established after the summer, partly in light of recent police developments (see §3.4.4). The Public
Prosecution Service, the Ministry of Security and Justice, the police and other partners in the chain have
expressed the intention to increase the effectiveness of their efforts to combat child pornography. For
this purpose, joint frameworks for a new plan of action have been formulated. This will have consequences
for the police with regard to its structure, and it will in any case have consequences for the Public
Prosecution Service with regard to the way in which operation, prioritisation and prosecution of child
pornography cases are implemented. Whilst maintaining the role and responsibility of each party, the
Public Prosecution Service and police both formulate a plan of action, aimed at achieving uniformity,
using different forms of settlement, pooling the knowledge held by the police and Public Prosecution
Service in a joint expertise centre, and investing in innovation and research. The implementation of this
plan is taking place in close collaboration with the partners in the chain. The plan of action for the Public
Prosecution Service is expected to be completed after the summer of 2011. 379
3.5.2 Trial
Each year, between 250 and 300 criminal cases are settled at court, in which cases charges are made on
the basis of Article 240b of the Dutch Criminal Code, some of which occur alongside other offences. 380
In principal, child pornography cases are in the first instance settled by all courts. In 2009, the Cybercrime
Centre of Excellence was set up at the Court of Appeal in The Hague, which not only maintains
375 Article 74 of the Dutch Criminal Code. See §3.6.2.
376 INDIGO forms part of the Zambezi ‘testbed’. See §3.4.2.
377 Public Prosecution Service, 2011, available at: www.jaarberichtom.nl/jaarverslag-2010/typeinfo.cijf/
aDU1045_Landelijke-expertisecentrum-kinderporno-vroegtijdig-ingrijpen.aspx (viewed 20 June 2010)
378 <strong>Child</strong> pornography tackled, appendix to the letter from the Minister for Security and Justice of 10 June
2011, Parliamentary Papers II 2010/11, 32 500 VI, no.106.
379 Written information from the secretary of the Project, reinforcing the measures to tackle of child pornography
at the Public Prosecution Service, 21 July 2011.
380 According to the Council for the Judiciary, the courts handled more than 150 cases in 2009, in which a
charge was made exclusively for child pornography on the basis of Article 240b of the Dutch Criminal
Code, see: www.rechtspraak.nl/Recht-In-Nederland/ThemaDossiers/kinderporno/Pages/Veelgesteldevragen.aspx
(viewed 16 June 2011).