I just finished r
eading the verdict and nothing in there suggests that we're looking at the end of Zwarte Piet in the Netherlands.
If you organise a public event over here, you need to get a permit from the municipal authorities. These permits are granted by default unless there are objections over safety or public order. Because these permits come from the government, they cannot contravene national legislation or treaties.
A few claimaints have sued the municipality of Amsterdam because they feel granting a permit to the Sinterklaas parade (which includes Black Petes) was illegal.
Just so we're clear: EVERY town and city in the Netherlands celebrates Sinterklaas in the public space: this case only covers the objections of a handful of citizens in a single city.
The city of Amsterdam counters that there was no reason to refuse the permit because there was no threat to public order or safety.
However, the Netherlands have signed European treaties guaranteeing the dignity of private persons. Because Zwarte Piet is rooted in a negative stereotyping of people of colour, the court allows that the claimaints have a case that their dignity has been compromised by public displays of Zwarte Piet. However, in the judge's opinion, the affront to their dignity is not sufficiently grave to declare the granting of the permit a violation of our human rights treaties (I wonder if the claimants will seek to appeal this before a European court.)
This does NOT mean that Zwarte Piet is now forbidden and can't legally be part of the festivities. The court has only stated that the grievances of the claimants are genuine and admonishes the municipality to weigh this grievance against the interests of other parties when giving out permits in the future.
Despite this admonishment, there was no legal reason for Amsterdam to deny the permit.
The public debate will continue and I'm sure we'll see change to Zwarte Piet. But no international pressure or legal wrangling is going to speed up this process. Sorry.