By Jhr. mr. Alexander W. Beelaerts van Blokland, Justice (Judge) in the Court of Appeal and honorary Special Advisor International Affairs of the City of The Hague.
As you probably will know, The Hague is the International City of Peace and Justice as well as ‘the Legal Capital of the World’ as several Secretaries-General of the United Nations named The Hague, lately by Mr Ban Ki-moon during the Conference on 100 years Peace Palace on August 28th, 2013.
Apart from Peace and Justice, there is another field in which The Hague is prominent: Security. Prominent organizations like the OPCW (Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons), Europol and NATO C1 Agency are based in The Hague. In February 2014 the Hague Security Delta (HSD) has been launched by the Minister for Security and Justice: a national innovation centre on security. In the same year The Hague organized very successfuly the worldwide Nuclear Security Summit (NSS) with State Presidents and prime ministers from all over the World present, including President Obama of the United States of America.
Within the general subject ‘Security’ The Hague is more and more prominent in Cyber Security. International organizations like the European Cyber Crime Centre (EC3) as well as Dutch national organizations like the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) are based in The Hague.
In 2011 the British government organized the first Global Conference on CyberSpace, followed by a second one in Budapest (2012) and a third one in Seoel (2013). This year 2015 the Netherlands will host the 4th Global Conference on CyberSpace on April 16th and April 17th in the World Forum in The Hague. About 120 nations from all over the world will be represented by their Ministers of Foreign Affairs with their delegations, as well as by NGO’s and the private sector. The subjects are cyber security, cyber crime, freedom and privacy, economic growth and social benefits, international stability etcetera. Apart from the big conference there will be the Cyber Security Week of The Hague Security Delta (HSD) that will start on Monday April 13th. Also the International ONE Conference and the yearly congress of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will take place that week in The Hague.
The Hague is becoming more and more the International City of Peace, Justice and Security.
a.beelaerts@planet.nl
