Before Dennis de Jong was elected Member of the European Parliament, in 2009, he worked as Special Advisor for the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In that capacity, he dealt not only with the human rights aspects of the freedom of religion or belief, but also with the position of religion in the Dutch Foreign and Development policies. He became the secretary of the Dutch Knowledge Centre on Religion and Development, and joined an academic network called Focus on Freedom of Religion or Belief. He is also a member of the OSCE/ODIHR Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. In 2000 he obtained his doctorate in law on the basis of his thesis ‘The Freedom of Thought, Conscience and Religion or Belief in the United Nations’.
Dennis is member of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, and is also active in the group of like-minded MEPs for the protection of the freedom of religion or belief. It is his firm conviction that the full scope of this freedom embraces the rights of theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs. Against this background, any type of discrimination against religious and non-religious beliefs should be eradicated, both within the EU and through the EU’s external policies also in other parts of the world.