Cabinet does not apologize for Dutch slavery past yet

AP

NOS News•Today, 20:03

On Friday at the annual commemoration of the abolition of slavery, the cabinet will make no apologies for the Dutch slavery past. The ministers of VVD, CDA, D66 and ChristenUnie will take until the autumn at least to make a decision on this sensitive subject, various sources report to the NOS.

This means that an apology to the descendants of the enslaved from Suriname and the Caribbean cannot be ruled out in the long run, the sources from The Hague emphasize. The cabinet first wants to have a substantive debate with those involved about the contemporary consequences of slavery.

Apologies have been discussed twice this month in the weekly Council of Ministers. This Friday, July 1, Keti Koti, the annual commemoration and celebration of the abolition of slavery in 1863, is always attended by a cabinet representative. This year it is Minister Weerwind for Legal Protection.

Sorrow

The cabinet has also still not provided a substantive response to the report presented last year by the Advisory Board Dialogue Group on Slavery Past. In that 217 page report – which deals with the slave trade and slavery under Dutch rule between the seventeenth century and 1 July 1863 – the main recommendation is that the Dutch state should apologize for slavery. “It is not a question of designating individuals as guilty, but of recognizing by the State of the Netherlands the suffering caused by slavery.”

Apologies have already been made in cities such as Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht, but also in Germany, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom and the United States, emphasizes the Dialogue Group.

Watch NOS’s video on 3 about the excuse dilemma here

The advice of this Slavery Past Dialogue Group was discussed during the cabinet formation in 2021, but the four negotiating parties were unable to reach an agreement. The VVD and the CDA are reluctant to apologize, D66 and the ChristenUnie are clearly in favour.

Quest

Prime Minister Rutte called the subject complicated in recent years, “a dilemma”, and a personal “quest”, also because it happened so long ago. “The question is whether you can hold people living today responsible for the past,” he said in 2020 during a debate on institutional racism. CDA leader Hoekstra therefore found apologies to be “something obligatory”. The previous government also feared polarization in society.

Proponents of apologies such as D66 minister Jetten and CU leader Segers emphasize that the suffering of the ancestors still affects discrimination and racism and that apologies can lead to reconciliation.

NOS reporter Jorn Jonker: they don’t think the timing is right now

“During the debates on this subject in recent years, VVD and CDA and, on the other hand, D66 and CU, were still quite opposed to each other. Those four parties have recently come a little closer together. The ministers have now discussed it with each other. and the conclusion is that the timing is not right now.

There is a lot of social unrest, such as the farmer’s protests, social concerns about the war in Ukraine and declining purchasing power, is the reasoning in the cabinet. People would have other concerns now. It would also play a role that apologies have been made more recently, such as last week for the Dutchbat mission in Srebrenica.

There are voices in favor of starting a kind of social dialogue about this first. When that is over, it cannot be ruled out that the Dutch state will still apologize in the run-up to the commemorative year 2023. Then it will be 150 years ago that slavery was ended.

In any case, D66 and CU want an apology. But that can also be later than next Friday, you can hear there. As long as it happens before or during the memorial year. By buying time now, the turn for VVD and CDA would also be easier to make.

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