PHILIPSBURG:--- In the run-up to the tenth anniversary of the dismantling of the Netherlands Antilles, the University of St. Martin (USM) and the Dutch section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ-NJCM) will co-host a webinar on Human Rights in the Dutch Caribbean, 10 Years After 10-10-10 on Thursday, 8 October 2020.
On 10 October 2010, a constitutional reform went into effect, dissolving the Netherlands Antilles and recognizing new constituent countries of the Dutch Kingdom. As a result, Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten became countries within an autonomous constitutional status, and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba became public entities or so-called special municipalities of the European part of the Netherlands. The webinar will look back on the past decade and discuss the consequences experienced in the Caribbean part of the Dutch Kingdom by the constitutional reform, and look into the relevant human rights and obligations.
“We will not only to explore the legal framework but also the political aspects of the new relationships through a multidisciplinary lens”, said Dr. Daphina Misiedjan, Assistant Professor of Human Rights at the University of Rotterdam Institute of Social Studies in The Hague. Misiedjan, who will be moderating the three-and-a-half-hour event, participated in USM’s webinar on Human Rights in the Face of COVID-19, held in June earlier this year. Together with lawyer, educator, and human rights activist Ms. Lisenne Delgado, Misiedjan and USM President Dr. Antonio Carmona Báez organized this trans-Atlantic webinar in order to stimulate collective critical reflection within the Dutch Kingdom.
Webinar speakers include professors Flora Goudappel and Ryçond Santos do Nascimiento of the University of Curaçao, sociologist Raymond Jessurun of the Sint Maarten Anti-Poverty Platform, anthropologist Louis Philip Römer of Vassar College in the United States, Jonneke Naber of the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights and Lisenne Delgado who is currently conducting research in Curaçao. The speakers will cover issues related to the Kingdom Charter, civil rights, labor, and socio-economic rights and self-determination from an international perspective.
The webinar will begin promptly at 9:00 AM (ECT) on Thursday, 8 October, and broadcasted on USM’s Facebook page via Zoom.
