News item | 10-11-2023 | 2:45 PM
At the proposal of Minister De Jonge of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, the Council of Ministers has decided that equal treatment laws should from now on also apply to Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. This means that residents of the BES islands who feel discriminated against on any grounds (gender, age, origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, etc.) can also appeal to this law. They can also report this to a new anti-discrimination facility BES and request free help and advice there. Finally, they can go to the Human Rights Institute for a judgment in their case.
Minister De Jonge: “It’s high time we took this step. Equal treatment is a fundamental right. It is stated in Article 1 of our Constitution. So it is good and logical that these equal treatment laws, which are an elaboration of this, will apply to the whole of the Netherlands.”
State Secretary Van Huffelen (Kingdom Relations and Digitalisation): “We previously had a thorough exploration carried out, which showed that there is broad support for this step on the islands. The executive councils of Bonaire, Saba and St. Eustatius then urged me to quickly introduce and implement the equal treatment laws. That’s what we’re going to do now.”
Further course
Citizens and companies have been able to give their opinion on the proposal via internet consultation. The input has been incorporated into a new version of the bill, which the cabinet will now submit to the Council of State and which will then be sent to the House of Representatives. The bill is scheduled to come into effect in 2025.