Kralendijk – in the coming period, UNICEF Netherlands, together with local parties, is conducting research into the rights of children on Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba, looking at what has been achieved in recent years and what can be improved.

Together with local and national government representatives, local experts and other parties, all aspects of the lives of children will be mapped and analyzed, with a particular focus on protection and the situation of adolescents at home and in the community.

The study – which UNICEF Netherlands was commissioned by the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations to facilitate – will present what has been achieved since the first Caribbean Netherlands Children’s Rights studies in 2013, what the state of affairs is and what is needed to better guarantee the rights of children and young people. The study will provide a clearer picture of whether the resources deployed over the past few years have delivered enough and if not, why not, and how things can be done differently.

“Five years later, these Situation Analyses will serve to highlight the progress achieved since the first reports and formulate actionable recommendations to support the public entities, Dutch national government, and communities at large on Bonaire, St. Eustatius, and Saba in closing the remaining gaps between universal children’s rights and inequitable outcomes for children in the Caribbean Netherlands” La-Toya Charles, Project Leader of the studies at UNICEF Netherlands. Together with the responsible actors both locally and within the ministries, action-oriented recommendations will be formulated to improve the situation of children. Soon UNICEF will also initiate a Situation Analysis on St. Maarten funded by the Dutch Red Cross.