Government opposes amendment to the constitution

June 03, 2012 11:39 AM

KRALENDIJK - The Board of Governors of the Public Body opposes the amendment to the constitution as proposed by Minister Liesbeth Spies of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.

In a letter the Board of Governors informs the Dutch minister of this viewpoint.The Board of Governors opposes the amendment because this will at least seem that the principle of equality, irrespective of what one thinks in the Netherlands, doesn’t entirely apply for Dutch people living in the Caribbean part of the country. This gives the impression there are two kinds of citizens with different rights within the Kingdom, the Board of Governors wrote.

The island government states emphatically to concur with the remarks from the Council of State who believe that such distinction in article 1 of the Constitution is redundant. The current agreements on the division of tasks between the administrative organs and the organization of the Government Services are sufficiently established by article 1 of the Constitution. This article states that equal cases are treated equally (the principle of equality).
 
This principle offers sufficient room for distinction between the Caribbean and the European part of the Netherlands. The risk of violating the principle of equality is not large if sufficient attention is paid to the relevant criterion such as objectivity, reasonable ground and proportionality, according to the advisory organ of the Dutch government and the parliament. Also the Council of State finds the proposed differentiation unnecessary.
 
The Board of Governors makes a strong appeal to the Dutch parliament not to include the proposed addition in the Constitution. For the sake of completeness, the island government points out that an evaluation of the Wolbes was agreed for 2015 and wonders with the proposed amendment to the constitution if one is not running ahead of the result of this evaluation.
 
In conclusion, the Board of Governors suggests the minister considering including Papiamentu and English as minority languages in the Constitution, just like one is considering for the Frisian language. 

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