The Baku Initiative Group (BIG) and Bonaire’s NGOs have signed a cooperation agreement.
According to Report, the agreement was signed by Abbas Abbasov, Executive Director of BIG; James Finies, a human rights activist and human rights defender of Bonaire and political leader of “Pueblo Progresivo Uni”; and Davika Jasmine Bissesar, president of the Bonaire Human Rights Society.
On August 22, the Baku Initiative Group and the Bonaire Movement for Human Rights and Change held an international conference in Baku, focusing on the situation on the island of Bonaire, which remains a colony of the Netherlands.
The conference, titled "Bonaire’s Pathway from Baku through UN General Assembly to Self Determination", brought together representatives of the Bonairean people who are fighting against colonialism and striving for freedom, as well as officials from Belize, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, St. Lucia, the United Kingdom, Mexico, the Netherlands, the UN, and other international and regional organizations, as well as human rights activists, NGO leaders, experts, and researchers on decolonization issues.
Notable participants included the Special Representative of the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, the Permanent Representative of Belize to the UN, the UNICEF Youth Envoy, the Youth Ambassador of the Caribbean Community, the Chair of the UN Permanent Forum on People of African Descent and other officials.
This event came at a crucial time for the future of the Bonairean people, as several states plan to submit a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly in the coming weeks, seeking to re-include the island on the UN list of territories to be decolonized. One of the main goals of the current conference was to garner international support for this resolution.