Recognising Victimhood: Lessons from the International Criminal Court and Mass Claim Programmes for the Compensation Procedure Parallel to the Trial of International Crimes in the Netherlands

In the Netherlands, the Dutch criminal court in The Hague (hereinafter: ‘Netherlands International Crimes Court’ or ‘NIC court’) is assigned to try international crimes, and to provide compensation to victims of such crimes. Whereas it has specific criminal laws at its disposal to try international crimes, it applies ‘regular’ Dutch civil law to assess claims for compensation. Yet compensation for international crimes entails challenges that are quite different from domestic crimes: international crimes are normally committed against a large number of victims, and frequently result in bodily harm. This article argues that the NIC court will most likely rule a large number of claims for compensation inadmissible, as a consequence of which victims cannot benefit from the advantages inherent in the award of compensation within the criminal process. It then explores the adjudicative and reparatory standards that the International Criminal Court and mass claim programmes have applied to simplify both the adjudication of a large number of claims, and the calculation of a large number of instances of bodily damage. It is submitted that adoption by the NIC court of international reparatory standards could facilitate the assessment of a large number of civil claims within the criminal process, without prejudice to the legitimate interests of the defendant for an adequate procedure. However, these standards require the NIC court to strike a new balance between tailor-made compensation and symbolic compensation, and thereby between corrective justice and restorative justice

The right thing to do or the smart thing to do? How communicating moral or business motives for diversity affects the employment image of Dutch public and private sector organizations

Many organizations have diversity statements in place in which they publicly declare their appreciation of and commitment to workforce diversity. These statements can either contain moral motives (e.g., “diversity reduces social inequalities”), business motives (e.g., “diversity enhances innovation”), or a combination of moral and business motives. In a desk study involving 182 Dutch organizations, we found that (a) private sector organizations more often than public sector organizations communicate business motives, (b) that public and private sector organizations are equally likely to communicate moral motives, and (c) that public sector organizations more frequently than private sector organizations communicate a combination of moral and business motives. Next, we used an experimental design to examine the causal influence of communicating different diversity motives on organizations' employment image (i.e., perceptions of organizational morality, competence, and attractiveness) among prospective employees (n = 393). Here, we used a scenario in which a healthcare organization was portrayed as either a public or a private sector organization and communicated either only moral motives, only business motives or a combination of moral and business motives for diversity. We found that for a public sector organization communicating moral instead of business motives for valuing diversity induced a more favorable employment image. For a private sector organization, there were no differences in employment image depending on the motive communicated. Together, these two studies shed new light on the role of diversity motives in establishing a positive employment image

Diversity climate enhances work outcomes through trust and openness in workgroup communication

Diversity climate, defined as an organizational climate characterized by openness towards and appreciation of individual differences, has been shown to enhance outcomes in culturally diverse teams. To date, it remains unclear which processes are responsible for these findings. This paper presents two quantitative studies (n = 91; 246) that identify trust and openness in workgroup communication as possible mediators. We replicate earlier findings that perceived diversity climate positively relates to job satisfaction, sense of inclusion, work group identification and knowledge sharing in teams. In study 1, trust is shown to mediate the effects of perceived diversity climate on team members’ sense of inclusion. In study 2, trust mediates the relationship between perceived diversity climate and workgroup identification and openness mediates its relationship with knowledge sharing