Finally, Chapter 6, ‘From permissive consensus to persistent critique’, turns to the most recent past of the Convention. It shows how the critique of the eighties became unsustainable by an unforeseen event: the end of the Cold War. This galvanized the earlier hesitant governments into accepting permanent supranational oversight. However, the signatory states’ caution had not suddenly disappeared. The concerns of the 1980s may have been briefly interrupted in the 1990s, but remained a constant factor.

The Convention also became a topic of public debate in the Netherlands from 2010 onwards: in order for that debate to flourish, a fundamental change in the previous, rather self-evident acceptance of human rights as inherently desirable was brokered, as the Court got caught up in wider debates surrounding national identity and migration.

Finally, the chapter sheds light on the persistent challenges the Convention keeps posing to the Kingdom. Caught between Dutch and Caribbean unwillingness, sensitivities and financial limitations, human rights standards occasionally lose out. The Convention has come to serve as a reminder of the shared responsibility of all in addressing those problems, but remains tied to historical grown discrepancies.