DIMENSIONS UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW LINKED TO THE DISSOLUTION OF THE NETHERLANDS ANTILLES

Abstract

At the end of 2010 the Netherlands Antilles will cease to exist and the islands of Curaçao and Sint Maarten will each obtain autonomous status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, comparable to that of Aruba. In terms of international law, the three smaller Antilles islands Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius (the BES islands) will become part of the former motherland, the Netherlands. This article examines the consequences of this partition of the Antilles in terms of international law. One necessary exercise will be to review the territorial scope of application of all conventions to which the Kingdom is a party, but which so-far only applied either to the Netherlands Antilles or to the Netherlands. It will also be necessary to take measures to combat the further fragmentation of responsibilities with respect to the implementation of treaties. The Kingdom's international borders will not be changing, but internal maritime borders will have to be drawn between Curaçao and Bonaire and between Sint Maarten and the two other Windward Islands. The representation of the new entities at international organisations will also have to be re-examined. However, the greatest challenge is how to deal with the issue of autonomy in the future. The Netherlands, as the former coloniser, cannot refuse to cooperate with the new status that the Antilles islands have now chosen (in part more and in part less independence). But the right to self-determination is an unstable factor for the future, because under current standards it does not cease its effect for entities undergoing decolonisation as long as independence has not been achieved definitively. The article argues that this axiom should be abandoned in the interest of the islands themselves. The Netherlands must enter into open discussion with its West Indies partners and ask them how they see the future: maintain the option of independence, or rather establish a definitive end to the colonial past right now. However, UN commitment will be required if one or more islands decide to waive the future exercise of the right to self-determination. Without an international base of support it will not be possible to draw a line under the colonial past.