Azerbaijan adopts final declaration on Bonaire

The final declaration has been adopted in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku following the international conference titled "Bonaire’s Pathway from Baku Through UN General Assembly To Self-Determination".

The conference participants expressed sincere gratitude to the Baku Initiative Group (BIG) for organising the event and to the Azerbaijani people for their warm and friendly hospitality, Caliber.Az reports, citing local media.

The document highlights that the event, focused on the people of Bonaire who are under colonial rule, provided all interested parties with the opportunity to discuss the long-term consequences of Dutch colonial policy, which threaten the future and existence of the Bonairean people.

The document notes that Bonaire, once part of the Netherlands Antilles, was included in the Dutch colonial system with broad internal autonomy.

"Following the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles on October 10, 2010, Bonaire was unilaterally incorporated into the Netherlands as a 'public entity' without the autonomy guaranteed by the Dutch Constitution, under unequal terms."

From 2010 to 2024, the population of Bonaire doubled from 11,000 to 25,000, largely due to an influx of Dutch immigrants from Europe. Indigenous inhabitants of Bonaire became a demographic minority, with their numbers dropping to less than 32 per cent of the island's total population by 2024.

In a referendum held on December 18, 2015, 66 per cent of voters rejected the constitutional status imposed on Bonaire in 2010. These results were unanimously ratified by the island's parliament as a legitimate and democratic decision of the Bonairean people. However, the Dutch government ignored the referendum's outcome, maintaining the status quo.

Participants also discussed the measures that need to be taken under international law to decolonize and free Bonaire from Dutch colonial rule. They noted that Bonairean civil society groups, led by James Finies, approached the UN Special Committee on Decolonization (C24) in 2016, highlighting Dutch violations of Bonairean rights. The C24 ambassadors recommended reinstating Bonaire on the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, seeking support from neighbouring Caribbean and Latin American countries, and initiating an independent investigation into Bonaire's self-governance.

The conference participants also took the opportunity to commend the Republic of Azerbaijan for its involvement in the "Caribbean Regional Seminar 2024 on Pursuing Goals and Addressing Needs of the Non-Self-Governing Territories," organized by the Special Committee on Decolonization in Caracas, Venezuela on May 14-16, 2024.

The report titled "Assessment of Self-Governance Sufficiency with Internationally Recognized Standards: Country Bonaire," prepared by the Dependency Studies Project under the guidance of UN Senior Analyst and Expert Dr. Carlyle G. Corbin in 2021, concludes that the status of "governmental entity," imposed and altered to "territorial governmental body" on Bonaire, represents a colonial reform of managing dependent territories. This status perpetuates inequality and undermines democratic governance, circumventing the inherent right to genuine self-determination as per international law. The report has been endorsed and accredited by the UN General Assembly as independent, containing self-governance definitions recognized by the Assembly.

According to the declaration, including Bonaire on the list of non-self-governing territories would require the Dutch government to provide an annual report to the UN General Assembly on Bonaire's social, economic, and political well-being. This reporting would be in accordance with Article 73 of the UN Charter, Articles 1 and 55 of the UN Charter, Resolution 1514 (XV) of 1960 (UN Declaration on Decolonization), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This inclusion would enable UN bodies to assess, intervene, and, if necessary, render assistance to Bonaire.

"Bonaire is calling for international support to protect and ensure the right of its people to self-determination and self-governance by reinstating its status as a non-self-governing territory. It is anticipated that a resolution on this issue will be presented by the seven Caribbean islands, led by Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and former President of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), at the UN General Assembly in early October 2024 as part of the decolonization agenda. We call for solidarity and appeal to the UN Secretary-General and UN member states to support this noble and humanitarian cause at the General Assembly. We urge them to join the seven Caribbean islands as co-sponsors of the resolution concerning Bonaire. This resolution seeks to reinstate Bonaire on the UN list of non-self-governing territories, placing it under the oversight of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization," the declaration said.

"We, the people of Bonaire, appeal to Mr. Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan and a member of the Chairmanship Troika of the Non-Aligned Movement, to convene the Non-Aligned Movement member states to discuss the critical issue of the right of the people of Bonaire to self-determination in accordance with international decolonization law and to support its reinstatement on the UN list of non-self-governing territories. We urgently call on the Government of the Netherlands to abandon its colonial policy and not to obstruct Bonaire's re-inclusion on the UN list of non-self-governing territories," the declaration said.