WILLEMSTAD – Curaçao will be under the spotlight next week as the four countries of the Kingdom review progress on a joint strategy against youth crime and efforts to make it easier for justice authorities to exchange sensitive information across their borders.
Both subjects are among several unresolved dossiers expected to feature during the Four-Country Justice Consultation (JVO), which brings together the justice ministers of Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands from September 1 through 3.
Curaçao has played an important role in developing the Kingdom-wide approach to youth crime.
The four countries previously supported a plan emphasizing prevention, alternative handling of minor offenses, supervision and assistance for young people up to the age of 23, improved registration of information and closer cooperation among institutions dealing with vulnerable and offending youth.
The meeting in Curaçao provides an opportunity to determine how much of that strategy has moved from planning to implementation.
Another persistent issue is the exchange of personal data and criminal justice information among the countries.
Authorities want legislation in the different parts of the Kingdom to be better aligned so information about criminal convictions and other relevant justice data can be shared more effectively.
Such exchanges can be important when authorities issue certificates of good conduct and when suspects or convicted offenders move between Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, the Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands.
Differences in legislation and privacy requirements have complicated that cooperation, making information sharing a recurring subject of Kingdom justice consultations.
The ministers will now have to assess whether sufficient progress has been made toward removing those obstacles.
Another potentially concrete decision concerns cooperation among the fire departments of the four countries.
During the January JVO on Sint Maarten, the countries agreed to further develop a new cooperation agreement and a joint secretariat for their fire departments. The issue was scheduled to return at the next JVO for further decision-making.
Justice Minister Shalten Hato will chair the upcoming consultation on behalf of Curaçao.
The program begins September 1 with preparations by senior officials. A strategic meeting on Kingdom justice cooperation follows September 2, with the four justice ministers holding their formal meeting on September 3.
Although cooperation will again be the central theme, the Curaçao meeting will also serve as a test of implementation. Several of the issues being discussed are not new and have already resulted in agreements at previous JVO meetings.
The key question will therefore be how many of those commitments have now translated into concrete measures and measurable results.