UN Committee calls for abortion to be legalized in Aruba, Curaçao, St. Maarten

GENEVA-GREAT BAY--A new United Nations review of the Kingdom of the Netherlands has directly called on Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten to decriminalize abortion and, at minimum, legalize abortion in cases of rape, incest, risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman, and severe fetal impairment, placing reproductive rights in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom at the center of one of the report’s strongest recommendations.

The recommendation appears in the latest concluding observations issued by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) following its review of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ seventh periodic report. In its assessment, the Committee states that abortion remains criminalized in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, and further expresses concern that migrant women face barriers in accessing safe and affordable abortion services throughout the Kingdom.

The Committee recommends that the Kingdom of the Netherlands, “decriminalize abortion in all cases” and “legalize abortion at the very least in cases of rape, incest, risk to the life or health of the pregnant woman and severe fetal impairment in Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten,” while also ensuring women’s access to safe, legal, culturally sensitive and affordable abortion services throughout the Kingdom.

The finding is part of a broader review that raises repeated concerns about unequal implementation of women’s rights across the four countries of the Kingdom, with the Committee specifically regretting that the seventh periodic report did not cover Aruba and St. Maarten, and that only limited information was provided for Curaçao. The Committee nevertheless noted that representatives from the Ministry of Public Health, Social Development and Labor of St. Maarten were part of the Kingdom delegation that appeared during the review process.

Beyond abortion, the Committee’s health section highlights wider concerns affecting women and girls in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom. It states that sexual and reproductive health services, including access to modern contraceptives and education in sexual and reproductive health and rights, are not guaranteed in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, and also notes that HIV/AIDS rates among women have increased in those countries. In response, the Committee recommends guaranteeing access to sexual and reproductive health services, including modern contraceptives and sexual and reproductive health education, while strengthening specialized HIV/AIDS services and antiretroviral medication.

The report also underscores that the issues facing the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom are not limited to reproductive health. Throughout the concluding observations, the Committee repeatedly points to structural gaps affecting women’s rights in Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, including weak data collection, limited gender-disaggregated statistics, fragmented services, and uneven implementation of protections compared with the European Netherlands.

In one of its broadest observations, the Committee notes “significant disparities in the implementation of the Convention across the Kingdom” and calls on the Dutch government to ensure implementation of the Convention across all parts of the Kingdom, including systematic integration into legislation, policymaking and adjudication. That point is especially relevant for the Caribbean countries, which are repeatedly referenced as areas where implementation gaps remain pronounced.

The Committee also flags concern about the near absence of comprehensive, gender-disaggregated data for the Caribbean parts of the State, warning that this undermines evidence-based policymaking and effective monitoring of women’s rights. It recommends strengthened data collection capacity in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom, backed by adequate human, technical and financial resources.

The report further urges the parliaments of Aruba, Curaçao and St. Maarten, alongside the States General of the Netherlands, to take the necessary steps within their mandates to implement the Committee’s recommendations before the next reporting cycle. That gives the conclusions direct relevance not only to central Kingdom policy, but to local lawmakers and policymakers in the Caribbean countries themselves.

The concluding observations were issued on February 23, 2026, as an advance unedited version of the Committee’s formal review of the Kingdom of the Netherlands under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

The report can be downloaded below