Hello nudists,
In a Dutch town there was an action against discarding the local nude beach. (Report in Dutch here.)
A most interesting part in this article is: “Strafwet. De strafwet staat bloot recreëren overal toe, zolang anderen zich daar niet aan storen.”
Criminal Law. Criminal law allows nude recreation everywhere, as long as others don’t take offence.
Now that’s something I didn’t know. Basically this says you’re allowed to go nude anywhere as long as you’re not bothering others. Quite cool!
This webpage for a Dutch naturist area (in Dutch of course) explains that the law article where this is detailed is number 430a. Most important part: “Het wetsartikel 430a maakte naaktrecreatie dus mogelijk op alle plaatsen die voor ongeklede recreatie geschikt zijn. In het algemeen zijn dit plaatsen waar geen openbaar verkeer langs komt.”
Law article 430a therefore enables nude recreation in all places that are suited for clothes-free recreation. In general these are places where no public traffic passes by.
(Public traffic here needs to be seen also as pedestrians and cyclists of course, not just cars.)
Another website (maintained by a lawyer), “Strict in criminal law” (Scherp in strafrecht) states: “Of een plaats voor naaktrecreatie geschikt is, wordt bepaald door plaatselijke omstandigheden en de redelijkheid.”
Whether or not an area is suitable for nude recreation is decided by the local circumstances and reason.
Which makes sense of course. With public awareness that nude recreation is more and more common, there would nothing against finding a silent/secluded spot in a forest and drop all clothes there for a while. Doing so in the middle of a town will certainly be frowned up (and that would be the least), so with these things in mind, the possibilities for nude recreation in the Netherlands become quite a lot more extensive.
> Criminal Law. Criminal law allows nude recreation everywhere, as long as others don’t take offence.
that bit at the end might be a problem.. coz of interpretations and stuff.
Indeed, but by now there’s a good deal of jurisprudence collected. People do get fined for being naked at times, but each court of law will cancel that fine unless there’s something very wrong going on. The thing is that people need to dare more. Then it becomes more known and visible.
I’ve encountered clothed people on my nude walks. Most of the time they ignore me. Some greet me.
> but each court of law will cancel that fine unless there’s something very wrong going on
so they look at the situation and like.. judge it on the circumstances.. good.
> Some greet me.
That experience is nice too, even if it is couple with a few leering stares but, i love it. The grouchy angry grumpy people is who you have to worry about!
General consensus here is that you don’t go naked in public places and near busy “common traffic” roads. Otherwise, if it’s quiet and there’s not a clothed majority, you’re fine. Meeting a clothed couple walking doesn’t count as a ‘majority’.