Presentation on Human Rights
Wednesday night a presentation was held at the Philipsburg Community Center on Human Right by Darryllin L. van der Veen-Lawyer Directorate of Foreign Relations of the N.A..
Wednesday July 2nd, there was a presentation on Human Rights by Ms. Darryllin van der Veen, of the Directorate of Foreign Relations of the Netherlands Antilles, regarding treaties for the Netherlands Antilles, UN Human Rights reports, and International law.
Ms. Van der Veen, explained what Human Rights were, the International Standards, Human Rights Mechanism, Human Rights and the Netherlands Antilles.
Several members from the government apparatusâ??from social and educational departmentsâ??were present to hear the latest developments in the field of Human Rights and Development.
"Human Rights," as explained by Van der Veen, "are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, language, or any other status. We are all equally entitled to our human rights without discrimination."
She pointed out that Human Rights are: Universal, Inalienable, Indivisible, Interrelated, Interdependent.
Ms. Van der Veen listed some main Human Rights Treaties:
1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
1965 International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination
1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
1979 Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination of Women
1984 Convention against Torture and other cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment or punishment
1989 Convention on the Rights of the Child
1990 International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all Migration Workers and Members of their Families
2006 Convention of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
2006 International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance
The speaker provided some details about each one of the treaties. Thereafter, Ms. Van der Veen explained the situation of these Human Rights Treaties as it relates to the Netherlands Antilles.
Where are we in accordance to these treaties, what are the bottle necks, especially in terms of Constitutional Developments. She said that there were some difficulties in reporting as it relates to having no national policy, difficulty in details in reporting, involvement of all the islands of the Netherlands Antilles, need for specific information and statistics, and there needs to be more of an awareness of the topic.
Ms. Van der Veen pointed out that each future Ministry in the new Constitutional status of each future country has to deal with these responsibilities. Thus much work and development has to be done in this area.