The Bonaire Human Rights Organization (BHRO) continues to ensure that Bonaire’s voice is heard on the international stage. During the 13th Session of the Expert Mechanism on the Right to Development at the United Nations Headquarters in New York, BHRO delivered four powerful interventions before a distinguished UN panel and member states, including the European Union and the Netherlands.
BHRO President, Davika Bissessar Shaw, addressed the session, while BHRO Founder, James Finies, made three additional interventions over the course of two days, placing Bonaire’s concerns directly before the United Nations.
In his interventions, James Finies emphasized that true development can never exist where a people is denied full participation in decisions affecting their land, identity, culture, and future. He warned that small island nations and non-self-governing peoples must not be left behind in the global development agenda.
Through this series of interventions, BHRO has once again demonstrated persistent international advocacy, ensuring that Bonaire’s concerns regarding human rights, dignity, equality, and development remain firmly recorded within the halls of the UN.
After years of systemic neglect and the ignoring of Bonaire’s rights since the unconstitutional restructuring of 10-10-10, Dutch ministries, parliaments, and national and state institutions are increasingly being forced to respond, engage in dialogue, review policies, and initiate changes on issues they have long ignored.
According to BHRO, all the changes currently taking place in Bonaire are the direct result of James Finies and BHRO’s interventions at the UN and other international forums. The organization asserts that these movements are not acts of goodwill, but rather a forced reaction to the sustained international exposure of Bonaire’s crisis in human rights, governance, and self-determination.