Women in International Security Netherlands (WIIS NL) is pleased to invite you to our event on Thursday the 25th of May focusing on the Dutch Caribbean!

Where is the Caribbean in the Dutch WPS National Action Plan?

The Dutch Caribbean, which include the diverse islands of Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Saba, and Sint Eustatius, faces a unique set of challenges when it comes to gender and human security. Many of the human security issued faced on the islands have an important gender component: personal security in the barrios; sex-trafficking; prostitution; crime and policing; drug trafficking; climate-change threats to livelihoods; disaster response in the leeward islands which experience hurricanes; economic and social security and access to higher education.

Despite the Netherlands’ commitment to the WPS agenda, which includes the publication of four national action plans, the needs of women in the Dutch Caribbean remain largely invisible in public debate and policy initiatives. Indeed, existing security initiatives for the region are usually gender-blind.

Together with Samira Rafaela (Member of European Parliament, D66) and Dr. Paula Kibbelaar (Instituto Pedagogico Arubano), we aim to shed some much needed light on the gendered insecurities faced in the Dutch Caribbean. How can local solutions to local problems not only be found, but also supported through e.g. the National Action Plans?