PHILIPSBURG, Sint Maarten — During the recently held InterExpo in the Netherlands, Constitutional Law Professor Mr. Gerard Hoogers was asked about the decolonization status of the former Netherland Antilles to which he insinuated that our decolonization process remains unclear.
When it comes to decolonization resolutions, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) uses a very unambiguous code of standard uniform practice to denote whether a territory is decolonized or not.
The aforementioned stand uniform practice employed by UNGA includes stating that a full measure of self-governance and a right of self-determination has been attained, as well as, stating that Chapter XI of the UN Charter no longer applies. Due to the fact that UNGA refused to place their standard uniform practice within our resolution, 945X, it simply means that we are not decolonized.
While we agree with Prof. Hoogers that our decolonization history is a complicated subject, his reasoning for said complications is ultimately flawed. Firstly, he stated that due to the unique arrangement and complexity of the Kingdom Charter, UNGA was only able to agree to excusing the Dutch State from reporting to the UN (i.e.
Article 73 e of the UN Charter). Prof. Hoogers fails to mention that Articles 73 a -d still remain in force due to the India Amendment attached to our resolution 945X.
In closing, we would implore Prof. Hoogers to familiarize himself with the India and Uruguay Amendments that are attached to our resolution 945X. Secondly, we would also implore him to do a comparative analysis of the decolonization resolutions of
Puerto Rico,
Greenland,
Alaska, and Hawaii so that he can view the standard uniform practices employed by UNGA.
If UNGA does not state that the former Netherlands Antilles has attained a full measure of self-governance, a right to self-determination and that Chapter XI of the UN Charter no longer applies, it simply means that, according to the UN standard uniform practice, the former Netherlands Antilles are not decolonized. The UN is never ambiguous when it relates to declaring the decolonization of a territory.
