BONAIRE:--- The Bonaire Human Rights Organization (BHRO) wishes to alert the public following the launch of a social-media campaign by the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights aimed at informing residents of Bonaire, Statia and Saba about human rights in everyday life, including the cost of living, housing, healthcare, education and other basic living conditions.
BHRO strongly supports human-rights education. However, our foremost concern is that information provided to the public must accurately reflect the lived realities and human-rights violations experienced on our islands. BHRO therefore encourages residents to critically assess the information presented through this campaign.
This concern stems from BHRO’s direct experience during the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) review of the Netherlands in Geneva on September 16–17, 2025. During those proceedings, BHRO travelled to United Nations Geneva and presented and raised concerns about information concerning Bonaire that, in our assessment, did not adequately reflect conditions on the ground.
Significantly, the subsequent UN findings identified serious disparities and continuing concerns regarding the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights. The Committee also expressed concern about the scarcity of information concerning the implementation of these rights in Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius. For BHRO, these findings are particularly important because they reinforce our concern that the realities experienced by people on the islands were not being adequately reflected in the information presented internationally.
BHRO provided the UN with information directly from the ground concerning poverty, the high cost of living, housing, healthcare, education, discrimination, inequality and unequal enjoyment of fundamental rights. BHRO’s contributions helped bring the lived realities of the population directly before the international human-rights mechanism.
BHRO is also concerned about the Dutch Government’s funding of the Institute. Where an institution receives funding from the same State whose human-rights performance it is expected to independently scrutinize, transparency and effective safeguards are essential. Such a relationship raises legitimate questions regarding institutional independence, potential influence over the information presented, and the narrative communicated to the public and international human-rights mechanisms.
Why does the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights not question whether Bonaire’s incorporation into the Dutch constitutional order, in disregard of the expressed wishes and democratic decision of the Bonairean people and under conditions of unequal rights, is consistent with Article 1 of both the ICCPR and the ICESCR—the fundamental right of all peoples to self-determination, by which they freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development?
BHRO therefore urges the people of Bonaire, Statia and Saba to stay informed, ask questions, document their experiences and critically assess whether the information presented corresponds with the reality they live every day.
Human-rights education is important, but our people deserve information that is independent, accurate, transparent and grounded in their lived reality.