Box 14.5 The Netherlands: Policies for Accepting and Integrating Gays and Lesbians in the Armed Forces301 According to a recent opinion poll, 90 per cent of Dutch armed forces personnel accept gays as colleagues. Current official policy aims at acceptance of homosexuality within the armed forces and at protection against discrimination and harassment. The policy makes use of information, education, support, and legal procedures to achieve its aims. 1. Information Policy The information policy aims at increasing the acceptance of homosexuality within the armed forces. Information brochures, the officer corps, and an independent foundation for homosexuality and the armed forces play an important role in the information campaign. In particular, commanding officers are expected to play an exemplary role in terms of values and norms towards acceptance and non-discrimination of homosexuals. The information policy reaches out to both military personnel and society at large. 2. Education Education on acceptance and protection against discrimination of homosexuals is a second pillar of armed forces policy. Attention is paid to policy and regulation, as well as values and norms within the initial training of all recruits, career courses for non-commissioned officers and officers, and courses for specialists within the armed forces. 3. Support and Counselling Support is a third element of policy. Homosexual armed forces personnel can turn to counsellors on the level of the unit or to special counsellors within the Office of the Inspector-General. These counsellors receive training from external institutions for acquiring information and skills for dealing with complaints. In addition, a special telephone number has been created for complaints, and social workers are also available to deal with complaints. Victims of discrimination and harassment can ask for help through these procedures. 4. Legal Framework The entire policy is based on a legal framework that includes a ministerial decree on the complaints procedure for harassment and discrimination, a ministerial decree on submitting complaints about (general) demeaning and unfair treatment by military superiors, and a code of conduct of the armed forces. 301 In the United Kingdom, for example, an Armed Forces Code of Social Conduct was recently adopted that puts emphasis on conduct and equal standards for all personnel, regardless of sexual orientation. A workable standard would emphasize that each individual is to be judged on the basis of their performance relevant to military goals (i.e., that everyone should be judged on their own merits); that all personnel must respect each other’s privacy; that interpersonal harassment — whether verbal, sexual, or physical — will not be tolerated, regardless of the genders of people involved; and that no service member will be permitted to engage in conduct that undermines unit cohesion (see Box 14.6). 301  Anna Adolfsen and Saskia Keuzenkamp, Uniform uit de kast: Homosexualiteit binnen de krijgsmacht [Coming Out in Uniform: Homosexuality within the Armed Forces] (The Hague: Social-Cultural Planning Office, 2006), <http://www.scp.nl/publicaties/boeken/9037702554.shtml>. 138 Handbook on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms of Armed Forces Personnel