"Open" jail

This is the entrance to a very special part of the main prison of the Hague (the same compound holds one United Nations Detention Unit where _suspected_ war criminals are detained (Charles Taylor, the late Milosevic. Do not forget that The Hague is called the "legal capital of the world" and houses many international legal organizations such as International Criminal Court, the Yugoslav Tribunal, etc...).

As you can see on that picture, the door is open!!!! This is the POI or "Penitentiair Open Inrichting", which means the "Open" prison. Prisoners with less than 5 months to go can be offered this opportunity as a way to accelerate their re-insertion into normal life: they work or study during the day, have to be back inside by 10pm, and are allowed to go home in the weekend.

May peace prevail on Earth

I went to visit Het Vredespaleis. As it is not allowed to make any picture inside, I am posting today a photo of the fence on the outside of the palace. Het Vredespaleis was built between 1907 and 1913 and designed by the French architect Louis Cordonnier in Neo-Renaissance Style. It houses, among other, the International Court of Justice which is a part of the United Nations as well as the Permanent Court of Arbitration and the Carnegie foundation (Andrew Carnegie financed the building).
The fence is made by a German iron maker. In the medallions we can see the pictures of Amicitia, Pax, Justitia and Concordia.