BONAIRE--Human rights advocate James Finies announced today that the Bonaire Draft Resolution, sponsored by two Caribbean CARICOM countries, was formally submitted and registered into the administrative process of the 80th United Nations General Assembly on June 10, 2026.
The announcement was made on July 1, a day that marks the abolition of slavery in 1863 in the colonized Antillean islands of the Caribbean. Finies described the development as one of the most significant constitutional and international steps concerning Bonaire since 1955, when Bonaire and the former Netherlands Antilles islands were removed by the Netherlands from the United Nations List of Non-Self-Governing Territories.
According to Finies, the draft resolution urges recognition that Bonaire remains a Non-Self-Governing Territory within the meaning of the Charter of the United Nations. It also declares that an obligation exists under Article 73 of the UN Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, as the administering power of the territory of Bonaire, to transmit information on Bonaire.
The draft further requests the Special Committee on Decolonization to consider the question of Bonaire at its next session and to report on the matter to the General Assembly at its 81st session.
Finies said the draft proposal has been uploaded by the United Nations General Assembly Secretariat through the e-Delegate system, making it accessible to the 193 Member States of the United Nations and the wider international community.
“This means the Netherlands will be called upon to account for and report to the United Nations General Assembly on the social, economic, cultural, political and educational development of the native Bonerian people, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and the treaties the Netherlands agreed to and signed in 1945,” Finies said.
He noted that similar international steps have occurred only a few times in modern decolonization history, including New Caledonia in 1986 and French Polynesia in 2013. Finies said Bonaire’s case now represents the first such development in this part of the world.
Finies said the registration of the draft resolution follows more than two decades of advocacy. From 2003 to 2010, he publicly opposed what he described as the divisive constitutional direction pursued by Bonairean and Antillean political leaders. From 2010 to 2016, he left his career as a commercial banker to become a full-time volunteer human rights defender, advocating for Bonaire’s right to self-determination and for a referendum.
Following what he described as the failure to respect Bonaire’s 2015 referendum, Finies said he embarked on a decade-long international campaign from 2016 to 2026, carrying out awareness and lobbying missions across the Caribbean, Central and Latin America, Europe, and at the United Nations in Geneva and New York. His advocacy has centered on the re-listing of Bonaire under the protection of the United Nations.
The advocacy group led by Finies said it has consistently worked since 2003 to draw international attention to Bonaire’s constitutional position and to the wider need for intervention in the Dutch Caribbean islands as a civil society effort.
Finies said Bonaire’s situation became particularly urgent after the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2010. He argued that Bonaire was left unprotected when Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten, together with the Netherlands, moved forward with a constitutional restructuring that placed Bonaire within the Constitution of the Netherlands.
“The people of Bonaire were incorporated against their wishes and without their consent into the Constitution of the Netherlands, subordinated to external rule from The Hague,” Finies said.
He further warned that Bonaire faces what he described as a major humanitarian, demographic and cultural crisis. According to Finies, native Bonerians represented more than 70% of Bonaire’s population before 2010, based on CBS statistics, but have since been reduced to under 30%. He said projections suggest that by 2035, native Bonerians could represent less than 15% of the population if urgent international attention is not brought to the situation.
Finies said the Bonerian diaspora throughout the Dutch Kingdom remains an important part of the struggle for recognition, protection and self-determination.
“The registration of this draft resolution is not the end of the road. It is a major step in bringing Bonaire’s case before the world,” Finies said. “The Bonerian people have the right to be heard, the right to be protected and the right to determine their own future.”
