Court Cases / Eighth GMS Court Case

Court in First Instance Bonaire

Theme: Discrimination between Dutch Citizens on the ground of place of birth and other human rights violations.

The person discriminated against in this case is a 12-year old girl, Dutch national by birth, born in Curaçao. Her biological mother died when she was a small child. The girl (hereinafter: ‘EB’) was raised by a foster mother as though she (EB) was her own child, ever since she (EB) was a little baby. The foster mother was officially appointed by the Court as the legal custodian of EB.

When the foster mother (with EB) decided to move from Curaçao to Bonaire, the mother was allowed free admission, because she is of Bonairean descent. However, EB was not allowed free admission ‘by operation of law’ (Dutch: ‘van rechtswege toelating’). Her request to be allowed to take up residence with her mother on Bonaire was rejected. EB’s admission request has been treated as if she were an ‘alien’ (a person of non-Dutch nationality).

In other words, the Dutch government has rejected a Dutch citizen (the minor EB) free admission ‘by operation of law’, on the ground that she was born in Curaçao. Both Curaçao and Bonaire form part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Bonaire having been incorporated into the European part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as of 10 October 2010. Seldom does one see a modern democratic state rejecting its own citizens the right to free admission in (parts of) its own country! Not only is this discriminatory and an erosion of Dutch citizenship, it is also a violation of art. 12 of the Int. Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), a violation of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and a violation of art. 8 Eur. Convention of Human Rights (ECHR).

In fact, this case is an amazing accumulation of human rights violations by the Dutch State. It is incredible that the Dutch government is defending its stance.