SINT MAARTEN (PHILIPSBURG) – Member of Parliament (MP) Grisha S. Heyliger-Marten Faction Leader UP faction and Second Vice-Chair of Parliament, has penned a letter to the Prime Minister Hon. Silveria Jacobs dated September 4th, 2021, related to the decolonization process.
The letter reads as follows:
“Honorable Prime Minister, I refer to the letter of the President of Parliament to you dated May 14th, 2021 and my letter to you dated June 2nd, 2021. Both are related to the finalization of the decolonization process, and unfortunately, I have been informed that no responses have been received to date.
“Since said letters were dispatched, a number of developments related to decolonization have taken place. In the first place, the attached motion was passed by the Parliament on June 30th, 2021. The execution of the resolutions of said motion are in preparation, and the Government will be informed on the status of this process within short. Secondly, in addition to the petition filed with the Special Rapporteur (SR) and Working Group (WG) on March 9th, 2021, Parliament submitted the attached written contribution to the 104th Session of the United Nation’s “Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” (CERD) on July 18th, 2021.
“The CERD carries out periodic reviews of the state of affairs and developments in the member states related to racial discrimination, based on its previous recommendations to said member states to address racial discrimination. At the invitation of the CERD, the President of Parliament was given the opportunity to elucidate on the written contribution on August 13th, 2021. Then, on August 16th and 17th, 2021, the CERD held publicly broadcast meetings with the delegation of the Dutch Kingdom to discuss the combined twenty-second to twenty-fourth reports of the Kingdom of the Netherlands (CERD/C/NLD/22-24), submitted in one document.
“Following the 104th session of the CERD, the Committee published the attached “Concluding observations on the combined twenty-second to twenty-fourth reports of the Kingdom of the Netherlands”. Lastly, the Dutch Parliament’s “Standing Committee on Kingdom Relations” (vaste commissie voor Koninkrijksrelaties) has added article 73 of the UN Charter as a topic on its “Knowledge agenda” for 2021.
“This means that the Standing Committee will seek professional (external) advice on the subject, in order to broaden its knowledge. It therefore stands to reason that the Standing Committee can and will use this additional knowledge in its discussions with the State Secretary of Kingdom Relations, and that the Dutch Parliament overall can do the same in its capacity of legislator and overseer of the Dutch Government.
“With reference to the letters sent to you in May and June last and the developments mentioned above, I am hereby requesting you to provide the Parliament with answers to the following questions: 1. When do you intend to send your responses to the aforementioned letters dated May 14th, 2021 and June 2nd, 2021 to Parliament, and what is the reason that said responses have not been sent to Parliament as yet? 2. Do you agree that the lack of responses to said letters is not consistent with your answer to the final question (question 20) of my letter sent to you on June 8th, 2020, which answers were received on October 6th, 2020, in which you stated that the finalization of the decolonization can and should be started as soon as possible? 3. How do you explain this inconsistency? 4. Have you seen (segments of) the CERD meetings of August 16th and 17th? 5. Did a preparatory meeting take place between your office and the representative of St. Maarten present at the CERD meeting, in which the official positions of the Parliament and the Government of St. Maarten related to the topics discussed in the CERD meeting were discussed and established? 6. If not, do you believe that this should have been the case and should be the case moving forward? 7. During said meeting, one of the representatives of the Dutch delegation, Director of the Constitutional Affairs and Legislation Department (Directie Constitutionele Zaken en Wetgeving), Mrs. J. (Hanneke) Schipper-Spanninga, stated (among other things) in response to a question by CERD member dr. Verene Shepherd that the Netherlands does not see the need to change the Kingdom Charter (“het Statuut”) “at this stage”.
“Do you believe that this statement is consistent with the execution of the van Raak c.s. motion of 2019, and the general academic and political consensus within the Kingdom and especially in the Netherlands that the decolonization of the Caribbean islands was not finalized, should be finalized, and that the Kingdom Charter needs to be amend in order to reflect this? 8. Have you read the contents of the CERD’s “Concluding observations on the combined twenty second to twenty-fourth reports of the Kingdom of the Netherlands”?
“9. Paragraphs 30 of said document includes the following recommendations: • The Committee also recommends that the State party ensure autonomy of the peoples of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and ensure their participation in decision-making processes in the State party that are of particular concern to them. • The Committee further recommends that the State party engage in a dialogue with representatives of the populations of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom who have been discriminated against because of perceived race or ethnic origin, in order to understand and address their concerns. • The Committee also recommends that the State party take measures to address any discrimination against, and promote equality between Dutch citizens born in the Dutch Caribbean and those born in the European Netherlands.
“With regards to the first of the three recommendations listed above, do you believe that it refers to-, and supports finalizing the decolonization process in accordance with international law? 10. With regards to the second and third recommendation, do you believe that it validates both Parliament’s petition to the SR and WG of March 9th, 2021 and submission to the CERD of July 18th, 2021? 11. Do you intend to have the Council of Ministers pro-actively approach the Government of the Netherlands to ensure that it follows up on the three recommendations listed above as soon as possible. 12. Do you believe that this follow-up can and should take place on the basis of/in conjunction with the contents of the aforementioned letters sent to you on May 14th and June 2nd, 2021 where it pertains to organizing round table conferences and other political consultations? 13. If so, how do you concretely see this follow-up and what would be required from Parliament at this stage? 14. Paragraph 48 of the CERD’s concluding observations states the following: “The Committee wishes to draw the attention of the State party to the particular importance of the recommendations contained in paragraphs 6, 30 and 38 above and requests the State party to provide detailed information in its next periodic report on the concrete measures taken to implement those recommendations.”
“Seeing that the Kingdom of the Netherlands is scheduled to submit its combined 25th to 28th report next periodic report by January 9th, 2027, do you believe that this timeframe is sufficient for the three recommendations listed in paragraph 30, including the decolonization, to be finalized? 15. If not, what is the timeframe within which you believe the decolonization can be finalized?
“I look forward to Parliament receiving the answers to these questions, and any other related responses to this letter at your earliest convenience, and thank you in advance for your cooperation. Sincerely, Grisha S. Heyliger-Marten Faction Leader UP faction and Second Vice-Chair of Parliament”
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