Sorgdrager, Winnie (1948—)
Sorgdrager, Winnie (1948—)
Dutch politician. Born in The Hague, the Netherlands, on April 6, 1948; studied law at Groningen University; received doctorate in 1971.
Winnie Sorgdrager's background as a public prosecutor in the regional courts of Arnhem and The Hague in the Netherlands prepared her for her role as minister of justice. She was born on April 6, 1948, in The Hague, the Netherlands, and studied at Groningen University. In 1971, the same year she passed her doctoral examinations, she began work at Twente University of Technology as an educational guidance counselor. Eight years later, she became a public prosecutor at Almelo, rising to the position of advocate-general in 1986 and procurator-general in 1993. In August 1994, she became the country's minister of justice as a Democrat in the Kok government. As such, she oversaw the court system, recommending reforms for better administration at the local level, and also proposed ways of better utilizing DNA testing in the prosecution of serious crimes and sex offenses. A few weeks before her term ended in 1998, she came under fire for her ministry's failure to halt the flow of child pornography in the country, and pledged to make the fight against child abuse her top priority.
Susan J. Walton , freelance writer, Berea, Ohio