The Baku Initiative Group (BIG) that recently signed a Memorandum of Cooperation with Bonaire Human Rights and Bonaire Movement for Change has called on the Dutch government to respect the freedom of the peoples it has long held under colonial rule and to stop creating obstacles to the islands' struggle for independence within international organizations.
The Dutch government recently submitted a new program to the country's parliament. The Cabinet approved the program of Ministers and must now be discussed and approved in parliament.
The statement by the BIG reads:
“The Netherlands, a colonial country for centuries, failed to show even the slightest indication that it would respect the freedom of the peoples it has held in captivity and remove the barriers it has imposed on the independent living of territories located tens of thousands of kilometers away.
The parties forming the new Dutch government – the Freedom Party, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the New Social Contract, and the Farmer-Citizen Movement – claim to fight for ‘freedom’ in their charters, yet continue to stifle the freedoms of the peoples of the 6 states located in the Caribbean – Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
The new program submitted by the government claims it will implement legislative and strategic initiatives aimed at increasing the welfare of the islands based on the principles of good governance and cooperation in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. A General Administrative Law will be prepared for this, which envisages the application of the ‘comply and explain’ principle.
Thus, the new right-wing nationalist Cabinet of Ministers of the Netherlands is preparing to continue the colonial policy of the previous government. Although the government claims that some of these islands have autonomous status, these territories have been made completely dependent on the Kingdom of the Netherlands. These islands have even been removed from the UN list of territories to be decolonized.
An international conference titled ‘Bonaire’s pathway from Baku through UN General Assembly to self-determination’ was held in Baku on August 22 this year to bring the real situation in the Dutch colonies to the attention of the world community.
These peoples fighting for their freedom, especially the island of Bonaire, plan to submit a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly in October this year to re-include it in the UN list of territories to be decolonized.
The Baku Initiative Group demands that the Dutch government respect the freedom of peoples and not create obstacles to the islands’ struggle for independence within the framework of international organizations.”
James Finies Bonaire Human Rights Organization
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