WILLEMSTAD - Curaçao has a new foundation that will deal with human rights. The new organization is called the Human Rights Defense Curaçao Foundation, HRDefense for short.

The founders include anthropologist Ieteke Witteveen, development cooperation expert and former diplomat Rita Dulci Rahman, former ambassador Lucita Moenir Alam and lawyer George Lichtveld.

HRDefense wants to defend the human rights of all residents of Curaçao, including aliens and refugees who reside in Curaçao, and who are entitled to protection of their human rights according to international human rights conventions.

Every year, the Foundation draws up an annual plan that specifies which people need help defending their rights and how HRDefense will work towards this.

For 2020, given the political-economic crisis in Venezuela, it is mainly refugees from our neighboring country who need protection.

In addition, the Foundation hopes to cooperate with Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland, the UN Refugee Organization UNHCR, and of course with the government and relevant institutions in Curaçao.

Ieteke Witteveen is the new director of HRDefense. She has previously worked for the human rights of refugees and migrants. For many, Ieteke Witteveen is the figurehead, mediator and support in the fight for respect for these human rights.

HRDefense says in a press statement that it assumes inclusiveness and tolerance. These components are needed to develop Curaçao. According to the foundation, it is about living and working together, regardless of race, religion, descent, and gender, as laid down in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948.

In the area of ​​refugee rights there is still a lot of work to be done in Curaçao. Undocumented migrants in Curaçao are still being detained and crowded "alien barracks" behind barbed wire and in prison grounds under degrading conditions.

It is still almost impossible to apply for protection and to undergo the careful review to be able to determine whether return is not a danger to the refugee. There are also distressing cases in which legal terms of detention are exceeded, with no prospect of release.

For example, according to HRDefense, eight refugees are currently detained in the SDKK for longer than the statutory period of six months.