PHILIPSBURG:--- Pro Soualiga extends a hearty welcome to the State Secretary to these shores. This is a Golden Opportunity for the State Secretary to comfort us that the rule of law still prevails in the Kingdom and that we are all protected from arbitrary treatment.
Last month, we sent the Hon. State Secretary a letter concerning events on our sister island of Statia. Specifically, we wondered why there was talk about “restoring democracy on Statia”? The casual manner in which this was discussed was shocking to us. Restoring democracy to a people who have been colonized for hundreds of years, in 2022?
The actions of the Dutch State in Statia, especially their vehemence and brutality, shocked us. In its Written Statement of February 27, 2018, the Kingdom proclaimed:
a. That the right to self-determination is a peremptory or “jus cogens” (dwingend recht) norm.
b. That this includes the right of Statia to determine its own economic, social, and cultural policies without any outside pressure or interference.
c. That this right to self-determination is permanent, inalienable, universal, and, peremptory. (dwingend recht)
d. That the Dutch State is under a peremptory (dwingend recht) obligation to “respect and promote” the right to self-determination.
e. That even though a territory has integrated or, associated with another state, the right to self-determination continues unabated-as does the peremptory obligation of the state with which territory has associated or integrated- to respect and promote that right.
As these are the stated positions of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, we are utterly confused as to how the Dutch State could have forcefully overthrown an elected government on Statia and installed its own government on that island.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands prides itself on being a “Rechtsstaat” or a state under the rule of law. It is therefore urgent that we as citizens of the Kingdom receive a clear understanding as to how the Dutch State can explain setting aside a rule of “dwingend recht”, jus cogens or a peremptory norm of international law, with which it is intimately acquainted, on Statia.
This issue of respect for the right to self-determination is timely. Could the islands be subjected to the implementation of the COHO legislation via Article 43 of the Kingdom Charter, an Order in Council, or KB (Koninklijk Besluit) or AMvRB (Algemene Maatregel van Rijksbestuur)?
We need to be assured that the rule of law will prevail in the Kingdom and your visit is a Golden Opportunity to explain how a territory, possessed of the peremptory right to self-determination, can find itself reduced to pariah status, bereft of democracy, within the Kingdom of the Netherlands anno 2022.
