Motion against placing conditions
on new status carried unanimously
PHILIPSBURG--The Island Council unanimously accepted a motion to request the governments of the Netherlands Antilles and the Netherlands to carry out and finance the necessary improvement of the justice chain in St. Maarten.
The motion also states that St. Maarten does not accept that the colonial power (the Netherlands) imposes conditions on the island’s pursuit of country status.
The motion was tabled by Constitutional Affairs Commissioner Sarah Wescot-Williams at the end of the 2008 draft budget debate in the Island Council on Wednesday. The motion rejected the conditions Dutch State Secretary of Kingdom Relations Ank Bijleveld-Schouten sought to impose in her December 11 letter to the chairwoman of the Dutch Second Chamber.
The motion also included a request for St. Maarten to present its case to the Council of Ministers of the Netherlands Antilles, the Parliament of the Netherlands Antilles, the Kingdom Council of Ministers and the Dutch Parliament.
In her letter Bijleveld-Schouten made the ability of the government of St. Maarten to maintain good law enforcement and justice a condition for its achievement of the status of autonomous country within the Kingdom. She also stated that the improvements to the law enforcement and justice chain must be implemented before St. Maarten could obtain the new constitutional status.
However, the Island Council considers that the law enforcement presently is and up to the time of attaining country status will be the responsibility of the Netherlands Antilles.
The conditions stated in the State Secretary’s letter, according to the motion, represent unilateral imposition of conditions not previously agreed to by St. Maarten and/or conditions over which the island has no authority or control in the present constitutional setting.
The motion considered furthermore that in the charter and resolutions of the United Nations, of which the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a cosignatory, the right of self-determination is established, as well as the role of the colonial powers in supporting the exercising of that right by a people.
Also, the right of self determination is defined as “all people have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
It also is stated that the exercising of that right may not be subjected to conditions imposed by colonial powers.
It was agreed that copies of the motion be sent to the Decolonisation Committee of the United Nations; the Governments and Parliaments of Aruba, the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles; the Kingdom Council of Ministers; and the Island and Executive Councils of Bonaire, Curaçao, Saba and St. Eustatius, among other institutions and entities.
