THE HAGUE - For the commemoration of the abolition of slavery on July 1st, members of the Dutch cabinet will once again travel to the islands. Earlier, Minister of Foreign Affairs Wopke Hoekstra announced that he will be in Suriname on that day.
On July 1st, King Willem-Alexander, Queen Máxima, and Prime Minister Mark Rutte will attend the commemoration in Oosterpark in Amsterdam. The king will deliver a speech and is expected to offer apologies for the slavery past. The Dutch prime minister did so last year.
Currently, we are in consultation with various commemoration committees and other organizations to assess whether the presence of the cabinet is appreciated. We aim for a balanced distribution across the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and the Netherlands, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science states.
This year marks exactly 150 years since the abolition of slavery in the former Dutch colonies.
Hoekstra has been invited by the Surinamese government to attend the commemoration in Paramaribo. When Rutte made apologies in December, Minister Franc Weerwind of Legal Protection was in the Surinamese capital.
On that day, after the prime minister's speech, members of the cabinet went on-site to engage in discussions with relevant organizations and authorities in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba.