The international organisations: ICC, OPCW, Europol, Eurojust and the rest

The sector everybody means when they call The Hague the city of peace and justice is bigger than the four famous names suggest, and it is growing.

Research by Decisio for gemeente Den Haag, published on 1 July 2026, counted 520 international organisations in the region in 2025: 5.9% more than at the previous measurement in 2023, and 211% more than in 2005, when the municipality first started counting.

Between them they are linked to 44,900 jobs, of which 19,674 are direct posts inside the organisations themselves and 25,208 are indirect, at suppliers and the businesses that serve them.

Their presence generates 8.6 billion euro of additional annual spending in the region, 4.4 billion of which lands as revenue with organisations and businesses here.

The institutions, and what each actually does

The International Court of Justice sits in the Peace Palace on Carnegieplein, and is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations.

It settles disputes between states and gives advisory opinions; it does not try individuals.

The Permanent Court of Arbitration shares the building.

The International Criminal Court, at Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, does try individuals, for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and aggression.

It had 125 States Parties as of October 2024 and employs over 900 people from roughly 100 countries.

Its working languages are English and French; its official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

It is organised into four organs: the Presidency, the Judicial Divisions, the Office of the Prosecutor and the Registry, and the Registry is where most of the non-legal jobs are.

The OPCW, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, is at Johan de Wittlaan 32, next to the World Forum.

It implements the Chemical Weapons Convention on behalf of 193 member states, sends inspectors to verify destruction and compliance, and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2013.

It has over five hundred staff from more than eighty states.

Europol, at Eisenhowerlaan 73, is the European Union’s law enforcement agency: intelligence, analysis and coordination for national police forces, with liaison officers posted in from member states and partner countries.

Its budget was 217.1 million euro in 2024.

Eurojust, at Johan de Wittlaan 9, is the EU agency for criminal justice cooperation, staffed partly by national prosecutors and judges seconded from member states.

Its purpose-built premises in the International Zone opened in 2017.

Behind those five sits a longer list.

The Hague Conference on Private International Law, at Churchillplein 6b, drafts the treaties that decide which country’s law applies when a family or a contract crosses a border.

The International Residual Mechanism for Criminal Tribunals carries the remaining work of the Yugoslavia tribunal.

The Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office sit at Raamweg 47.

NATO’s Communications and Information Agency has its headquarters in the city, the European Patent Office has a large branch in neighbouring Rijswijk, and there is a dense layer of institutes, NGOs and think tanks around them, from the Asser Institute to the Humanity Hub.

Who they can hire

This is the part worth understanding before you apply, because it disqualifies people quietly.

EU agencies, which includes Europol and Eurojust, recruit citizens of EU member states.

The UN-family and treaty-based bodies, which includes the ICC and the OPCW, recruit nationals of their member or States Parties and manage geographical distribution as an explicit objective.

The ICC’s own recruitment material names its most underrepresented States Parties and invites applications from them, Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Germany and Japan among them.

Being from an underrepresented country is a real advantage and being from an overrepresented one is a real disadvantage, and neither is a secret.

Language requirements are specific rather than general.

At the ICC you need good spoken and written skills in English or French.

At the OPCW fluency in English is essential and another official language, meaning Arabic, Chinese, French, Russian or Spanish, is an asset.

Dutch is almost never required, which is why this sector is the answer to whether you need Dutch here being different for its employees than for everyone else.

The contract types, and why they matter more than the job title

EU agencies use the EU staff system.

Officials and temporary agents are graded in two function groups, AD for administrator posts and AST for assistants, with temporary agents typically recruited at AD 5 to AD 12 or AST 1 to AST 4.

Contract agents sit in function groups I to IV.

Seconded national experts remain employed by their home authority and are lent to the agency.

The durations are standard: at Eurojust, five years for a temporary agent and three for a contract agent, each renewable once for a further fixed period, and a second renewal makes the contract indefinite.

Salaries on the published EU scale ran from 3,754.39 euro a month at the bottom grade and step to 23,932.55 euro at the top as of July 2025, before allowances.

Those allowances are a large part of the package and are easy to overlook: an expatriation or foreign residence allowance, a household allowance, a dependent child allowance and an education allowance, plus access to the European School of The Hague for staff children.

The UN-family bodies work differently and one rule in particular catches people.

The OPCW is explicitly a non-career organisation: total service for Professional staff may not exceed seven years.

Its mandatory separation age is 65, and fixed-term staff have 30 days of annual leave a year.

Taking a job at the OPCW is taking a job with an end date, and people plan their Hague lives around that.

None of these are Dutch employment contracts, and the protections described in Dutch employment contracts and what you are entitled to do not automatically apply.

Each organisation has its own staff regulations, its own internal appeals mechanism and, in most cases, immunity from Dutch jurisdiction.

Read the staff rules, not the Burgerlijk Wetboek.

Tax, privileges and the thing your friends will get wrong

The tax and social security position of international staff is set by each organisation’s headquarters agreement with the Netherlands, administered by the Protocol Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which issues the identity cards and handles registration.

It is not the ordinary Dutch system, and it is not the 30% ruling either, which belongs to ordinary employment.

Anyone comparing offers across the two worlds is comparing two different tax regimes and should get the net figure for each in writing rather than reasoning from a gross salary.

How people actually get in

Direct application to an advertised vacancy is the visible route and the most competitive one.

The less visible routes carry more people than most applicants realise.

Secondment is the biggest.

National prosecutors, police officers, diplomats, forensic specialists and civil servants arrive on secondment from their own governments, keep their national employment, and often return.

If you already work for a member state’s administration, your own ministry is a more productive place to apply than the agency’s careers page.

Junior Professional Officer schemes are funded by individual governments to place their own young nationals in international organisations, so whether one exists for you depends entirely on your passport and is worth checking with your own foreign ministry.

Internships and visiting professional programmes exist at most of these institutions and are a common way in, with the caveat that terms and funding vary sharply between organisations and have changed repeatedly in recent years; check what the specific programme offers before committing to a move.

And a large share of posts are not legal at all.

These are organisations of several hundred to a thousand people, and they need IT, human resources, procurement, facilities, security, finance, translation, communications and archiving like any other employer.

Applicants with a law degree compete against hundreds; applicants who can run a procurement process compete against far fewer.

Some of that hiring, particularly at the contractor and interim end, runs through agencies that specialise in this sector, which is covered in how recruiters operate here.

Recruitment agencies in The Hague include firms that have worked the international corridor for decades.

Living around it

The institutions cluster in and around the International Zone in the north-west of the city, and so do the people who work in them.

Statenkwartier and Benoordenhout are the classic addresses, walking or cycling distance from the Peace Palace, the ICC and the World Forum, with Bezuidenhout better placed for anyone commuting out by train.

The schooling question follows immediately, and the international schools here exist largely because of this sector.

International schools in The Hague fill up in the spring, which is out of step with a September start date, so it is worth starting earlier than feels sensible.

For anything administrative on arrival, the municipal desk described in The Hague International Centre deals with this population daily, and the wider job market outside the sector is in finding work in The Hague as an international.

Sources

• Gemeente Den Haag and Decisio, economic impact of international organisations, published 1 July 2026: 520 organisations in 2025, 5.9% up on 2023 and 211% up on 2005, 44,900 linked jobs of which 19,674 direct and 25,208 indirect, 8.6 billion euro of additional annual expenditure of which 4.4 billion as regional revenue
• International Criminal Court, jobs and public information: address Oude Waalsdorperweg 10, 2597 AK The Hague, 125 States Parties as of October 2024, over 900 staff from roughly 100 countries, working languages English and French, six official languages, the four organs, and the stated priority for applicants from underrepresented States Parties including Brazil, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, Germany and Japan
• OPCW, employment and public information: address Johan de Wittlaan 32, 2517 JR The Hague, 193 member states, over five hundred staff from more than eighty states, the 2013 Nobel Peace Prize, a non-career organisation with Professional service capped at seven years, mandatory separation age 65, 30 days of annual leave for fixed-term staff, English essential and another official language an asset
• Europol public information: headquarters at Eisenhowerlaan 73 in The Hague, a budget of 217.1 million euro in 2024, and liaison officers posted in from member states and partner countries
• Eurojust, working at Eurojust and selection and recruitment process: address Johan de Wittlaan 9, purpose-built premises opened in 2017, grades AD and AST, contract agent function groups I to IV, five-year temporary agent and three-year contract agent contracts renewable once before becoming indefinite, reserve lists valid two to three years, applications, written tests and interviews in English, and a salary scale from 3,754.39 to 23,932.55 euro a month as of July 2025, plus expatriation, household, dependent child and education allowances and access to the European School of The Hague
• HCCH contact page: Permanent Bureau at Churchillplein 6b, 2517 JW The Hague
• Kosovo Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office contact page: Raamweg 47, 2596 HN The Hague
• Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Protocol Guide for International Organisations: the Protocol Department’s role in registration, identity cards and the privileges set out in each headquarters agreement