Rightswalk : Trails of Justice
A human rights walk
Den Haag, 26 Locations
The Rights Walk in The Hague will tell you about the particular aspects of rights and justice that relate to what you see en route. The central part of the Walk, City Centre, focuses on the oldest part of The Hague – these few kilometres could be walked in an hour, but you can take as long as you like enjoying the historic buildings, museums and cafés along the route.
You can start at any location of the tour and select the places you want to visit.
The second part, the International Law Excursion, will show you some of the places that have established The Hague’s worldwide reputation as a city of international justice and arbitration. At the end of this route, you will be at Scheveningen beach. You can either walk between the venues, rent a bike or take short tram rides. It’s a great destination for both adults and kids.
Walk along and experience the City of Peace & Justice.
City Centre
This part of the tour will lead you along the origins of Dutch democracy, the scientific & intellectual discoveries of the Golden Age, the gruesome political murders of 1672, the Hague Peace Conferences of 1899 and 1907, the Second World War and the persecution of the Jews (one of the few Jewish survivors founded the Wiener Konditorei), and present-day activities to counter discrimination, human trafficking and crimes against humanity.
If time is no obstacle, you can visit one of the museums in this quarter: the Prison Gate Museum and the Willem V Gallery, the world-famous Mauritshuis with its Vermeer paintings, the Escher Museum or the Historical Museum of The Hague. The City Hall’s Atrium frequently offers interesting historical exhibitions portraying this ‘City of Peace and International Justice’. There are also plenty of places to rest and recharge your batteries, such as café De Posthoorn and restaurant Le Bistroquet with their remarkable political histories.
Just behind the Filmtheater, you will find The Hague’s Chinatown, an area with many ethnic groups, temples, a mosque (formerly used as a synagogue), and more exotic restaurants than one could visit in a month. Just a few minutes’ walk from there is the extremely interesting Humanity House, an ‘experience museum’ initiated by the International Red Cross where you can see and feel what it is like to be in a war, a refugee camp.
International Law Excursion
With the opening of the Peace Palace in 1913, its sponsor, Andrew Carnegie, hoped to contribute towards the prevention of any major wars. It is now the seat of the International Court of Justice. There are guided tours at various hours of the day. In the wooded areas beyond the Peace Palace you’ll find interesting monuments and beautiful residences, each with their own history. Further along in the direction of Scheveningen is Madurodam, a park hosting miniature replicas of hundreds of Dutch sights.
In Scheveningen, you will find the Oranjehotel, where war prisoners were held from 1940 to 1945. You will also find the grand office building that houses the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, where Milosevic, Karadzic and Mladic stood trial; the modern architecture of the Nobel Prize winning Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; the Gemeentemuseum (Municipal Museum) and its vast collection including Mondrian; and the adjacent Museum of Photography. At Scheveningen beach, the prestigious Kurhaus Hotel has hosted such dignitaries as Winston Churchill and Mikhail Gorbachev.
Tip!
Download the Walk at home or at a Wi-Fi hotspot
Bring earbuds/headphones; they make it easier to listen to the audio clips
Special discount: Upon presentation of the downloaded Rights Walk The Hague, visitors to Humanity House pay only € 3.50 instead of € 7.50.
Rights Walk The Hague is initiated by Amnesty International and supported by Humanity House.
Translation: Alex Hamelers, Jane Bemont
Voice-over: Dawn Mastin
