Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization to host first Expert Panel Discussion on Kingdom Charter

Philipsburg – The Parliament of Sint Maarten will host its first expert panel roundtable on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm on the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands at the House of Parliament.

In 2021, the Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Decolonization (CCAD) gave multi-partisan approval for the hosting of a high-level discussion with the main objective ‘to receive information and advice on designing an approach to amending the Kingdom Charter.

Based on the proposal by a subcommittee of the Committee, local and kingdom constitutional experts were agreed upon. These experts were invited to present a position paper in relation to the following themes; the Charter of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as it relates to the United Nations in terms of decolonization and the democratic deficit within the Kingdom. The panel consists of Dr. Nilda Arduin, Mr. Julio Romney, Prof. Dr. Gerhard Hoogers, and Mr. Reynold Groeneveldt.

During the roundtable discussion, Members of Parliament will have the opportunity to discuss and debate the themes with the panelists. The public will also be able to virtually submit questions to the panelists.

As it is customary with Parliamentary meetings, this roundtable discussion will be broadcasted on various forms of media. The position papers of the panelists will be available for download on the website of Parliament: https://bit.ly/3up986A . The public is encouraged to download and read the position papers before the roundtable discussion on April 19, 2022.