THE HAGUE – The proposed new Kingdom extradition law for Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten places significant emphasis on terrorism-related crimes while simultaneously strengthening legal protections and human rights safeguards within the extradition process.
According to documents submitted to lawmakers across the Kingdom, political offenses will generally continue to be excluded from extradition agreements. However, the new framework introduces an extensive list of exceptions for terrorism-related crimes.
These include terrorist bombings, terrorism financing, nuclear terrorism, and crimes threatening the safety of aviation and maritime transport.
The proposal reflects broader international developments in anti-terrorism cooperation and the growing alignment of Kingdom legislation with international treaties and security standards.
At the same time, the legislation strengthens protections for suspects and convicted individuals.
Among the safeguards included are explicit protections against extradition in cases involving discriminatory prosecution, unfair trials, or serious humanitarian concerns.
The law also preserves the long-standing principle that Dutch nationals generally cannot be extradited to foreign countries.
An exception remains possible only if authorities receive sufficient guarantees that a convicted Dutch citizen would ultimately be allowed to serve any prison sentence in their own country.
According to the explanatory memorandum, the proposed legislation also incorporates clarifications requested by the Council of State of the Kingdom, the Caribbean Public Prosecution Service, the Joint Court of Justice, and the Curaçao Bar Association.
The Council of State reportedly raised no substantive objections to the proposal itself, although various legal and technical adjustments were made following consultations with judicial and legal institutions throughout the Kingdom.
The modernization effort is considered one of the largest updates to the Kingdom’s extradition framework in decades and formally ends the continued reliance on legislation dating back to the colonial period of the former Netherlands Antilles.