According to the results of a survey conducted by the European Commission among about 26,000 people from 27 EU member states, 21 percent of participants reported that they had been discriminated against or insulted during the past year. Discrimination on the basis of skin color, ethnicity, age and socio-economic status is highest in the Netherlands, followed by discrimination on the basis of religion in France. In this regard, Sweden, Belgium and Cyprus are also in high places.

In 2008, the Dutch press conducted an investigation into how 36-year-old Dutchman Erik van Sabben became a participant in the US-Israeli sabotage of Iran's nuclear program. A journalistic investigation has revealed that Eric van Sabben injected the infamous Stuxnet virus into special software, causing massive damage to Iran's nuclear program, but died shortly afterwards in a car accident.

Human rights groups have sued the Netherlands for complicity in the war over its supply of spare parts for Israel's F-35 jets.