Herman Bolhaar is new National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children

Mr. LL.M. H.J. (Herman) Bolhaar has been appointed the new Dutch National Rapporteur on Trafficking in Human Beings and Sexual Violence against Children. He succeeds Mrs. C.E. Dettmeijer, who will step down on November 15th after eleven years.

Bolhaar (1955) was chairman of the Attorney General’s College of the Public Prosecutor from June 1, 2011 until June 1, 2017. He is now affiliated as a Senior Fellow, with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard University in Cambridge, United States.

As chairman of the Attorney General's College, Bolhaar was already closely involved with dealing with trafficking in human beings, as he was president of the Human Trafficking Task Force for many years. With the Task Force playing the lead role, there has been an integrated approach in the fight against trafficking in human beings. The police and Public Prosecutor work together on this with , among others, municipal authorities, the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee, the Inspectorate SZW, Immigration and Naturalisation Service, Chamber of Commerce, NGO’s (such as CoMensha) and private parties (for example Koninklijke Horeca Nederland).

The term of office for the National Rapporteur is four years and can be extended once for another four years. The staff of the National Rapporteur look forward to working with Bolhaar.