Kingdom Ombudsmen to meet on Saba

The National Ombudsman, the Ombudsman of Curaçao and the Ombudsman of St. Maarten will gather on Saba on Monday January 21 and Tuesday January 22 for their annual meeting.

During their stay on Saba, National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen, who is also the Ombudsman for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba, Curaçao Ombudsman Keursly Concincion and St. Maarten Ombudsman Gwendolien Mossel will host a workshop with representatives of the Public Entity Saba on Monday. Aruba doesn’t have an Ombudsman as yet, but the country will be represented by Sahaira Kelly at the meeting on Saba.

The Ombudsmen come together once per year to discuss the latest developments in their work area in the Kingdom. The objective of the meeting is to strengthen the relations of the Dutch Caribbean Ombudsmen and the National Ombudsman, to learn from each other and to talk about the similarities and the differences.

In the workshop with the Saba government representatives, the Ombudsmen will discuss the relationship between the government and the citizen, the differences between the Netherlands and the Caribbean Netherlands where it pertains to the way of handling complaints that are filed by citizens, and to share experiences.

The work of the National Ombudsman in the Caribbean Netherlands is important because he also there for Bonaire, St. Eustatius and Saba to assist citizens when they have a complaint about their local government. The National Ombudsman also introduces the principles of complaints rights to the government departments. The office of the National Ombudsman is in The Hague, but the National Ombudsman and his staff regularly visit the islands.

GIS Saba