Dutch caribbean islands should Adopt UN Slavery Resolution

Monday, May 25, 2026, marks exactly two months since the United Nations (UN) General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity.  The resolution was spearheaded by Ghana with the support of the African Union and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and received 123 votes in favor with Argentina, Israel and the United States voting against and 52 other countries including the Kingdom of the Netherlands abstaining.

The resolution took place on the day marking the commemoration of the International Day of Remembrance of Victims of Slavery and Transatlantic Slave Trade, March 25 where between 12-15 million people were captured in African and trafficked to the Americas.

The Dutch Government failed to consult with the islands of Curacao, Aruba and Sint Maarten (CAS) regarding the decision not to vote on behalf of the Kingdom for the UN resolution.

The Netherlands is obliged to consult with the CAS islands in advance regarding UN resolutions and gave the excuse that “communication with stakeholders from across the Kingdom could have been better,” a quote attributed to the Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Tom Berendsen.

The UN General Assembly (GA) President Annalena Baerbock said, “the slave trade and slavery stand among the gravest violations of human rights in human history, an affront to the very principles enshrined in the charter of our United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, themselves borne in part from these injustices of the past.”

Baerbock told the General Assembly on March 25, 2026 that while systemic slavery and the slave trade “may be confined to the past, its roots of discrimination live on, as do grave violations of human rights,” and stressed that “we must therefore be tireless in pursuit of justice, ensuring that we remain active participants in the pursuit of dignity, accountability, and equality across generations.”

President of the Parliament of Sint Maarten Sarah Wescot Williams said recently that the Kingdom must repair damage caused by the Netherlands UN vote abstention on slavery, and that Berendsen’s explanation offered thus far falls short of what is required.

According to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, the slave trade was, “today is more than a time of remembrance. It's a moment to confront the lasting legacies of inequality and racism. We will never forget the victims of slavery, and you must never forget the malevolent system that sustained it for so long.”

Guterres said, “this was not simply forced labour. It was a machinery of mass exploitation and deliberate dehumanisation of men, women and children.”

Therefore, the parliaments of Curacao, Aruba and Sint Maarten, and the island councils of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BES islands) should take a stand! For the Dutch Government to say that communication with the islands could have been much better is a slap in the face of the people’s representatives and therefore they should take a stand.

Take a stand by passing the UN resolution within the parliaments and island councils and send a strong message within the Kingdom and submit the people’s vote to the UN General Assembly for the record that CAS and BES stood up while the Netherlands abstained.

As Guterres added, “the transatlantic slave trade was a crime against humanity that struck at the core of personhood, broke up families and devastated communities.” It should not be that this matter goes unanswered by the islands and swept under the rug.

As has been pointed out, for more than 400 years, millions of people were stolen from Africa and shipped to the Americas -New World- to toil in cotton fields, sugar and coffee plantations.

They were denied their basic humanity and even their own names, forced to endure generations of exploitation with repercussions that reverberate today including persistent anti-Black racism and discrimination.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa stated after the UN GA vote was, “an emphatic victory for justice, and our ancestors, Africans and all people of African descent are today honoured that our humanity and our dignity have been restored.” The Netherlands failed by abstaining on March 25. The time is now for the Parliament of Sint Maarten to restore our humanity and dignity within the Kingdom even if we have to do it alone.

Roddy Heyliger

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