Global Cultural emergency experts gather in St. Maarten for CER regional hubs meeting

GREAT BAY--Cultural heritage emergency specialists, archivists, disaster response professionals, and regional coordinators from across the globe are gathering in St. Maarten from May 18 to 22, 2026, for the Annual General Meeting of the Network of Cultural Emergency Response, CER, Regional Hubs.

Hosted by the CER Regional Hub in the Caribbean and the St. Maarten Sub Hub, the week-long program is coordinated by Marcellia Henry, Secretary General for UNESCO St. Maarten. It brings together representatives from Aruba, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Curaçao, Kosovo, Suriname, the Netherlands, Barbados, Jamaica, Guatemala, Ukraine, Lebanon, St. Maarten, and St. Martin to strengthen international cooperation in protecting cultural heritage during crises and emergencies.

The AGM officially opened with welcome remarks from Minister of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Melissa Gumbs. In her address, Minister Gumbs expressed appreciation to Cultural Emergency Response and the Caribbean Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives, CARBICA, for convening the gathering and selecting St. Maarten as the host location for this year’s meeting.

“This Annual General Meeting provides a valuable platform for meaningful dialogue, knowledge exchange, capacity building, and regional partnership development,” Minister Gumbs stated. “The planned discussions, training opportunities, and site visits throughout the week will undoubtedly strengthen our collective ability to respond effectively to cultural emergencies and safeguard the heritage that defines our communities and identities.”

Additional welcome remarks were delivered by Sanne Letschert, Director of CER, and Max Scriwanek, Director of the Curaçao National Archives and Coordinator of the CER Regional Hub in the Caribbean.

A keynote presentation by Marcellia Henry highlighted St. Maarten’s post-Hurricane Irma recovery efforts, with particular emphasis on cultural, heritage, and documentary institutions. She also noted that St. Maarten officially became a CER Sub Hub in June 2025. In this role, St. Maarten is responsible for coordinating cultural emergency response efforts within the northeastern Caribbean and supporting nearby islands, including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, St. Eustatius, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saba.

The AGM program, compiled by Freddie Thomson, Program Manager for CER Regional Hubs, features presentations, workshops, training sessions, tabletop exercises, and collaborative strategy discussions focused on emergency preparedness, cultural protection, and regional response coordination.

Conference sessions highlighted the achievements and lessons learned from CER Regional Hubs in the Caribbean, Levant, Western Balkans, Black Sea region and Central America. Topics throughout the week include crisis management and emergency decision-making, psychosocial wellbeing in emergency response work, regional emergency response case studies and lessons learned, development of new large-scale response workflows, public engagement in cultural protection, and continuity planning and simulation exercises for cultural emergency preparedness.

Participants will also engage with local cultural institutions through visits to the Saint Martin Archives on the northern side of the island, cultural sites in Marigot, the St. Maarten Library, and other heritage venues and sites in Philipsburg.

The Annual General Meeting represents an important opportunity to deepen international collaboration and reinforce the role of cultural heritage protection within disaster and emergency response frameworks.

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