MP Roseburg: Restoring slavery’s legacy to IPKO agenda is a step toward action

ORANJESTAD, Aruba--MP Sjamira Roseburg wanted IPKO to take slavery's lingering lasting impacts seriously and proceeded to convince her colleagues accordingly. Roseburg, Chairperson of St. Maarten’s Committee for Kingdom Affairs and Interparliamentary Relations, used the closing press conference of IPKO in Aruba to underscore that slavery and its lasting impacts will be formally brought back for discussion at future IPKO consultations. Roseburg emphasized that the renewed agenda placement was a specific initiative of the St. Maarten parliamentary delegation, and she noted that it was supported by the Dutch delegation.

Placing the issue in the flow of the three-day consultation, Roseburg's initiative was grounded in a question she received at the very start of the session. During the opening of IPKO, the Dutch delegation asked Roseburg how the Kingdom can address slavery’s ongoing impact, particularly where it shows up in lived outcomes today. Though the answer would have been broad-based, Roseburg saw an important initial step being her push to place the issue on the IPKO agenda, because it moves the topic from informal concern back into a structured, scheduled forum where the four parliaments can engage it directly, return to it, and follow through.

In her closing remarks, Roseburg framed the subject as present-day reality. “Slavery continues to affect both mental and physical health today, particularly among the descendants of enslaved people,” she said, describing the issue as slavery’s legacy and urging the Kingdom’s parliaments to treat it accordingly.

Roseburg also pointed to the importance of timing and evidence, noting that a Dutch-funded report published in November 2025 placed renewed attention on the lingering health and mental health impacts connected to slavery’s history. She said the report’s focus reinforces why the issue cannot be handled as a once-a-year mention, or reduced to symbolic acknowledgment, because the effects described are ongoing and measurable in people’s lives.

Roseburg argued that IPKO is precisely the setting where this kind of conversation must happen with seriousness and continuity, because it is one of the few spaces where representatives of the four parliaments can confront sensitive Kingdom-wide issues directly, with accountability to each other and to the people they represent. “IPKO is precisely the forum where we must engage in the in-depth dialogue… looking each other in the eye and having honest conversations that are needed,” she said.

She stressed that restoring the issue to the agenda is not the end goal, it is the starting point, and she warned against repeating earlier patterns where topics are added, acknowledged, and then allowed to fade. Roseburg recalled that slavery was on IPKO’s agenda in 2023 and 2024, but, like other issues raised within the consultation, it fell by the wayside over time. She said the St. Maarten delegation wants full attention and sustained focus going forward, meaning consistent discussion across sessions, clearer direction on what the parliaments expect to see next, and deliberate follow-up so the matter does not slip off the agenda again.

Roseburg welcomed the fact that the upcoming IPKO is expected to feature clearer agenda points, and she said the Aruba session showed that St. Maarten’s delegation can shape Kingdom-level discussions when it pushes for continuity and substance. In the same remarks, she also welcomed the inclusion of gender equality among proposed topics for future IPKO discussion, describing it as another issue that requires Kingdom-level attention and follow-through rather than one-off references.

Roseburg closed by encouraging continued engagement on both the topics discussed during the Aruba session and those identified for future consultations, emphasizing that these discussions must remain grounded in the lived realities of the people across the Kingdom.

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