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ANNOUNCEMENTS•
Prime Minister Rutte will give a speech on the past of slavery at the National Archives in The Hague on Monday, December 19, the Government Information Service announced. The Prime Minister will respond to the chains of the past report to the interested parties with whom the cabinet has spoken in recent days.
It has not been formally announced whether there will also be an apology for the slavery past, but everything said by cabinet members and political sources these days, aim for that.
Also present is the Advisory Board Dialogue Group Slavery Past, which wrote the report. That recommended in 2021 the Dutch state apologizes, recognizes that slavery and the slave trade were crimes against humanity and that the consequences of slavery’s past are still being felt.
Informal meeting
Also attending on behalf of the Cabinet are Deputy Prime Ministers Hoekstra, Kaag and Schouten, Minister Bruins Slot for Home Affairs and Kingdom Relations and Minister Dijkgraaf for Education, Culture and Science.
Following the speech, there will be an informal closed meeting where those present will have the opportunity to speak with Cabinet members.
A cabinet delegation will also be present in the six islands of the Caribbean part of the Kingdom and in Suriname. They will also speak to invited guests about what Rutte has said on behalf of the government.
Tomorrow, Deputy Prime Minister Kaag will travel to Paramaribo to discuss what will happen on December 19 with the government and organizations of Suriname. That visit had been scheduled at the last minute, according to insiders in an effort to cut back on the smooth out creases.
There has been much discussion over the message that the cabinet intends to apologize for slavery as early as next Monday. For example, slavery committees in the Netherlands, Suriname, Curaçao and Aruba believe July 1 next year is a better date. It is then commemorated that it was exactly 150 years ago that slavery actually ended, in 1873.
They suggested still other organizations conditions, as a reparation fund for the descendants of victims of slavery. The cabinet has already said it will not adopt all the requirements but wants to continue the discussion.
