Dutch Christian party loses court case on women political rights
Date: 20/07/2012      Time: 06:28:00 PM
 
A Dutch Christian political party which opposes votes for women has lost its efforts to stop women from becoming MPs on its behalf, Dutch medai reported Friday. The European Court of Human rights in Strasburg today rejected an appeal by the fundamentalist Christian party SGP, which says women should not be allowed to hold political office. The Court argued that the advancement of the equality of the sexes is today a major goal in the member States of the Council of Europe. The SGP took its case to the European Court after the Dutch supreme court ruled in 2010 the party must allow women to stand for election. The party has two seats in the 150-seat parliament and receives 800,000 euro in government support every year.