A court in the Netherlands has fined a man for harassing and intimidating a woman on a street in Rotterdam, in the first conviction under a new law tackling sexual harassment in public spaces.
The 33-year-old man was fined €100 (£84) by a court in Rotterdam on Wednesday, months after he was accused of grabbing a woman on the street by the hips and holding her. The court set out an additional fine of €180 if he is caught reoffending.
The law came into effect across the Netherlands in July, with penalties for unwanted touching, inappropriate comments or gestures.
The Dutch legislation seeks to build on local initiatives previously introduced in cities such as Amsterdam. Countries across Europe including France, Portugal and Belgium have ushered in similar laws, though the enforcement of these varies widely.
In the Netherlands, journalists and onlookers reportedly packed into the court to hear the pioneering ruling. The court ruled that the man had touched the woman without her consent and “in a manner that could be considered frightening, hurtful and degrading”.
The court also addressed the wider impacts of street harassment. “Sexually intimidating someone on the streets like that makes people feel unsafe and prevents them from being themselves in public,” it said. “Sexually intimidating behaviour often leads to adaptive behaviour. People go to other places or start dressing or behaving differently. Public life is affected.”
Following concerns that the law would be nearly impossible to enforce, a pilot project had dispatched undercover teams to roam the streets of Rotterdam, Utrecht and Arnhem and look out for catcalling and harassment.
Evidence from the team in Rotterdam was key to the conviction, as they told the court they had watched the woman react with shock and fear to the man’s actions before she rushed away.
Since the law took effect this summer, 14 cases have been launched, public prosecutors told reporters. Three of the cases have been dismissed because of a lack of evidence, while the rest are waiting on the courts.
A survey carried out in 2021 by the Dutch national statistics agency found that 67% of women between the ages of 12 and 25 said they had been harassed on the street in the past year, with catcalling as the most common behaviour reported.
