Clare's Law, often known officially as a Domestic Violence Disclosure Scheme or similar, designates several ways for police officers to disclose a person's history of abusive behavior to those who may be at risk from such behavior. It is intended to reduce intimate partner violence. Clare's Law is named after Clare Wood, a woman murdered in England by a former domestic partner who police knew to be dangerous.
Clare's Law has two main elements: a 'right to ask', which allows members of the public, including a domestic partner, to request information from the police about a potential abuser; and a 'right to know', which, in certain circumstances, permits police to disclose such information to the public on their own initiative.
First implemented in England and Wales in 2014, the policy structure has since been adopted or proposed in various forms elsewhere in the United Kingdom as well as in Australia and Canada. Despite its name, Clare's Law need not—and often does not—take the form of a statute. Instead, it may be implemented as a policy document or guidance issued by a government authority to police departments.[a]
The Netherlands is taking a significant step in the fight against domestic violence. This legislation gives women the right to formally request information from police about a (former) partner's history of domestic violence or criminal behaviour and is currently being drafted by the Dutch Ministry of Justice and Security. As of right now, Clare's Law has not come into force yet, but its development marks a meaningful shift in how the Netherlands approaches the prevention of intimate partner violence.
The gap in the current law
Under existing Dutch legislation, checking another person's criminal record without their consent is not permitted. Women with safety concerns about a partner currently have no formal legal route to access that information. The only existing mechanisms are the judicial documentation extract (uittreksel justitiële documentatie) and the Certificate of Conduct (VOG), managed by national screening authority Justis. Both are designed for employment purposes and require the subject's cooperation. This leaves a critical blind spot in domestic safety that Clare's Law is designed to address.
A contested but necessary debate
While Dutch civil society organisations have played a vital role in keeping this issue on the policy agenda, the proposed legislation has also raised some concerns amongst various individuals and at institutions regarding data misuse, the right to informational self-determination, and the risk of unintended consequences if safeguards are not carefully built into the law. These are legitimate concerns which need to be addressed during the drafting process while ensuring that these privacy considerations must not become a barrier to protecting women's lives.