The Dutch justice has rejected this Wednesday the civil lawsuit of a group of 19 women between 62 and 91 years old who survived the harsh work regime imposed in the convents of the religious order Hermanas del Buen Pastor.
The events occurred between 1951 and 1979, and the judges have concluded that the case has prescribed and there is no financial compensation for what occurred.
The court admits that those affected may have suffered trauma, but is not convinced that the nuns intentionally harmed them emotionally.
On the other hand, they should have shown one by one, and not as a group, the consequences they carry.
The plaintiffs are considering appealing the ruling.
“It is a sad moment, but we are determined to appeal because forced child labor cannot prescribe.
It is that clear, ”she explains, on the phone, Lies Vissers, shortly after learning of the judges' decision.
She is 70 years old and was interned between 1966 and 1969 in a convent in Almelo (east of the country).
She was 12 years old when she was taken from home after the death of her father.
Her mother could not support all four of her children.
In a conversation this February with EL PAÍS, she recalled that the place was like "a factory, with our work as a source of income for the nuns."
With the ruling in her hand, she says this: "We work for well-known companies, for the Government and even the Dutch Royal House, do not tell us that this cannot be recognized."
The nuns received laundry and sewing orders also from hospitals and the army,
and the "girls", as they were called, had to work in silence.
They lost their identity since their name was replaced by a number, and they only rested on Sundays.
“Saturday morning was still regular work.
The afternoon was reserved for cleaning the floors, on his knees”, recalls Vissers.
When the time came for them to reintegrate into society, they were ordered not to tell what they had experienced in the center.
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Exploited in the name of God
The girls were interned in their adolescence or youth, and could be sent by their families, the judge, the equivalent of what today would be the social services or the police.
The reasons were varied: a pregnancy while single, a broken or poor family, adaptation problems or having a criminal record.
The religious order was not accountable and the State did not supervise what was happening behind closed doors.
Once free, they carried the stigma of having been locked up.
A total of 15,000 girls between the ages of 11 and 21 passed through the five convents established in the Netherlands since 1876.
Three Dutch nuns remain, aged 94, 96 and 103.
The nature of the treatment received has been qualified by the court.
The judges point out that it was not the same in all the convents, "according to the reports prepared at the request of the Government, which show changes between 1951 and 1979."
On the other hand, "the statements of those affected indicate different situations for each one."
The group of 19 women rejects the judicial interpretation, and assures that "the reality was equally bad in all the convents over time."
Liesbeth Zegveld, her lawyer, regrets that the court "has not recognized forced labor as an institutional fact, a crime of a collective nature, and wants these women to show one by one the emotional damage suffered."
She wonders if it would be conceivable that "victims of something like that, or of slavery,
which is another of the crimes against human rights, each one had to prove their traumas to be recognized”.
And he adds: “This is a case of denial of identity.
They did not know that what they were suffering from was criminal and it took them years to be able to sue.
They did not know the names of the others and it was difficult for them to find each other.
It was necessary to make their suffering public, something that took decades, and that it be recognized as forced labor”.
During the process, the lawyer explained that both the International Labor Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights were applicable.
They did not know the names of the others and it was difficult for them to find each other.
It was necessary to make their suffering public, something that took decades, and that it be recognized as forced labor”.
During the process, the lawyer explained that both the International Labor Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights were applicable.
They did not know the names of the others and it was difficult for them to find each other.
It was necessary to make their suffering public, something that took decades, and that it be recognized as forced labor”.
During the process, the lawyer explained that both the International Labor Convention and the European Convention on Human Rights were applicable.
The congregation's version
In 2019, a report prepared by two experts in social and labor law indicated that the situation in the convents of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd fit "within the definition of forced labor according to international standards."
In 2020, the congregation apologized for what happened, although it described the laundry and sewing tasks as "therapy."
That same year, the Government considered them victims of violence and presented its excuses.
The lawyer admits that more than 30 years have passed and the case has expired, but the judges have not agreed on whether some women suffered forced labor and others did not.
“The sentence leaves that possibility open, which we will develop in the lawsuit to claim the exceptionality of what happened.
We will also present each case with their personal sufferings.”
The order also exists in France.
In Ireland, they were part of the religious communities in charge of the so-called Magdalena Laundries, which applied similar work rules until the middle of the 20th century.
In 2013, the Irish government agreed compensation of between €11,500 and €100,000 for women who were locked up in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Dutch case appeared in 2011 in a section of the official report on abuses within the Dutch Catholic Church since 1945. This work, commissioned by the Executive, estimated between 10,000 and 20,000 victims of sexual abuse.
The girls of Buen Pastor have not denounced this type of intimate aggression, but labor exploitation and mistreatment.
In 2018, his case reached a broader audience through an investigation published by the newspaper
NRC Handelsblad
.
Another group of survivors, made up of about 250 women, have preferred not to go to court.
They consider the apologies of the order and the Executive, as well as the monument that remembers their pain, sufficient.
Installed on the land of one of the old convents, it has a plaque that says the following: "Name me, recognize that I exist."
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