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Mpanzu Bamenga

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Mpanzu Bamenga
Member of the House of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office
6 December 2023
Municipal councillor of Eindhoven
In office
28 April 2021 – 30 March 2022
In office
3 July 2018 – November 2018
In office
27 March 2014 – 29 March 2018
Personal details
Born
P. Bamenga

(1985-07-12) 12 July 1985 (age 39)
Kinshasa, Zaire (present-day DR Congo)
Political partyDemocrats 66
Residence(s)Eindhoven, Netherlands
Alma materRadboud University (LLM)

P. "Mpanzu" Bamenga (born 12 July 1985) is a Congolese-born Dutch jurist, human rights activist and politician of the Democrats 66 (D66), who has served as a member of the Dutch House of Representatives since 2023. He previously held a seat in the municipal council of Eindhoven from 2014 to 2018, and from 2021 to 2022.[1]

Biography

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Bamenga was born in Kinshasa, Zaire (present-day Democratic Republic of the Congo). In 1994, at the age of 8, he fled to the Netherlands with his mother and brother, where he lived as an undocumented refugee for thirteen years.[2][3] In 2007, he was granted a residence permit by Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin.[3]

In 2020, he sued the Dutch government along with human rights organizations and another citizen for racial profiling, after he had been selected for an inspection by the Royal Marechaussee at Eindhoven Airport. Bamenga was informed that the agency was looking for criminals and non-Dutch citizens, and he noted that all other selected individuals were people of color. The Hague Court of Appeal concluded that the Royal Marechaussee had engaged in racial discrimination, and it ruled that the agency was not allowed to use racial features during inspections.[4] For his legal battle, Bamenga won an annual prize awarded by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights in 2021.[5][6]

On 22 November 2023, he ran in the 2023 general election as the ninth candidate on the D66 list, and was elected into the House of Representatives.[1] He was installed as MP on 6 December 2023, and he became his party's spokesperson for foreign trade, development cooperation, discrimination, integration, infrastructure, and environment.[1][7] Along with Willem Koops (NSC), he introduced a bill in December 2024 to explicitly prohibit racial profiling during fraud detection and criminal investigations. They argued insufficient protection against the practice existed despite the Constitution's discrimination ban and other anti-discrimination legislation.[4]

House committees

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  • Committee for the Interior
  • Committee for Kingdom Relations
  • Committee for European Affairs
  • Committee for Foreign Trade and Development
  • Contact group France
  • Committee for Agriculture, Fisheries, Food Security and Nature
  • Committee for Infrastructure and Water Management[8]

Electoral history

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Electoral history of Mpanzu Bamenga
Year Body Party Pos. Votes Result Ref.
Party seats Individual
2017 House of Representatives Democrats 66 35 834 19 Lost [9]
2023 House of Representatives Democrats 66 9 4,264 9 Won [10]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "P. (Mpanzu) Bamenga". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  2. ^ "Mpanzu Bamenga". Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  3. ^ a b Mudde, Leo (2017). "'Iedereen zei dat ik Nederland niets te bieden had'". Association of Netherlands Municipalities (in Dutch). Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b Al Ali, Wafa (12 December 2024). "Wetsvoorstel moet ervoor zorgen dat etnisch profileren écht niet meer gebeurt" [Bill should make sure that ethnic profiling will really never happen again]. NRC (in Dutch). Retrieved 15 December 2024.
  5. ^ "Mpanzu Bamenga wint mensenrechtenprijs met strijd tegen etnisch profileren". NOS (in Dutch). 10 December 2021. Retrieved 7 December 2023.
  6. ^ Kirby, Paul (15 February 2023). "Dutch border police told to stop ethnic profiling". BBC News. Retrieved 6 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Verdeling van portefeuilles Tweede Kamerfractie" [Portfolio allocation House of Representatives group]. Democrats 66 (in Dutch). Retrieved 10 March 2024.
  8. ^ "Mpanzu Bamenga". House of Representatives. Retrieved 16 December 2024.
  9. ^ "Uitslag Tweede Kamerverkiezing 2017 (getekend exemplaar)" [Results House of Representatives 2017 (signed example)] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 21 March 2017. pp. 114–115. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
  10. ^ "Proces-verbaal van de uitslag van de verkiezing van de Tweede Kamer der Staten-Generaal 2023 d.d. 4 december 2023" [Report of the results of the election of the House of Representatives on 4 December 2023] (PDF). Dutch Electoral Council (in Dutch). 4 December 2023. pp. 19–20. Retrieved 21 December 2023.
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