Ubuntu Connected Front

Last updated
Ubuntu Connected Front
AbbreviationUCF
Leader Regillio Vaarnold
Founded14 December 2017;6 years ago (2017-12-14)
HeadquartersEtta Palmstraat 23,
Hoofddorp [1]
Ideology Ubuntu
Black-Dutch interests
Colours    Pan-African colours
Senate
0 / 75
House of Representatives
0 / 150
European Parliament
0 / 29
Website
ubuntuconnectedfront.com

Ubuntu Connected Front (UCF) is a political party in the Netherlands.

Contents

Ideology and policies

Central to UCF's election manifesto is the "Black Agenda", [2] [3] derived from the UN International Decade for People of African Descent 2015 to 2024 mission. The three pillars of this agenda are recognition, justice and development. Recognition concerns the impact of the slavery past. Justice is about historical reparatory justice. The aim is to achieve equal development opportunities for everyone. UCF carries out its activities based on these principles, with the aim of transforming society in this sense.

Elections

The party was founded in December 2017. The first participation in the elections for the UCF was in the municipal elections in 2018. UCF participated in Rotterdam (535 votes, 0.23%) and Amsterdam (1,052 votes, 0.30%). [4] [5] This was insufficient in both cities to win a seat.

The party participated in the 2021 general election with Regillio Vaarnold as its top candidate. [6] The party did not receive enough votes to win a seat in the House of Representatives, but was the most popular party in St. Eustatius, receiving 320 out of 630 votes cast. [7] The UCF candidate list included two prominent politicians from St. Eustatius. [8]

Action points

After the 2021 elections, the UCF carried out several concrete actions in the field of decolonization of cultural heritage. For example, the municipality of Tilburg was urgently requested to remove the statue of Petrus Donders from public space. [9] The government of St. Eustatius was requested to apply heritage participation and to stop the degrading archaeological excavations at the airport. [10] The party is also committed to the (free) change of slave names, something that more and more Dutch municipalities are inclined to do. [11] [ better source needed ]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Netherlands Antilles</span> 1954–2010 Caribbean constituent country of the Netherlands

The Netherlands Antilles was a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The country consisted of several island territories located in the Caribbean Sea. The islands were also informally known as the Dutch Antilles. The country came into being in 1954 as the autonomous successor of the Dutch colony of Curaçao and Dependencies. The Antilles were dissolved in 2010. The Dutch colony of Surinam, although relatively close by on the continent of South America, did not become part of the Netherlands Antilles but became a separate autonomous country in 1954. All the island territories that belonged to the Netherlands Antilles remain part of the kingdom today, although the legal status of each differs. As a group they are still commonly called the Dutch Caribbean, regardless of their legal status. People from this former territory continue to be called Antilleans in the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Saba (island)</span> Dutch Caribbean island

Saba is a Caribbean island and the smallest special municipality of the Netherlands. It consists largely of the dormant volcano Mount Scenery, which at 887 metres (2,910 ft) is the highest point of the entire Kingdom of the Netherlands. The island lies in the northern Leeward Islands portion of the West Indies, southeast of the Virgin Islands. Together with Bonaire and Sint Eustatius it forms the BES islands, also known as the Caribbean Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sint Eustatius</span> Dutch Caribbean island

Sint Eustatius, known locally as Statia, is an island in the Caribbean. It is a special municipality of the Netherlands.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Senate (Netherlands)</span> Upper house of the Netherlands

The Senate is the upper house of the States General, the legislature of the Netherlands. Its 75 members are elected on lists by the members of the twelve States-Provincial and four electoral colleges for the Senate every four years, within three months of the provincial elections. All provinces and colleges have different electoral weight depending on their population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elections in the Netherlands</span>

Elections in the Netherlands are held for five territorial levels of government: the European Union, the state, the twelve Provinces, the 21 water boards and the 342 municipalities. Apart from elections, referendums were also held occasionally, but have been removed from the law in 2018. The most recent national election results and an overview of the resulting seat assignments and coalitions since World War II are shown at the bottom of this page.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SSS islands</span> Group of islands in the Caribbean Sea

The SSS islands, locally also known as the Windward Islands, is a collective term for the three territories of the Dutch Caribbean that are located within the Leeward Islands group of the Lesser Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. In order of population size, they are: Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius, and Saba. In some contexts, the term is also used to refer to the entire island of Saint Martin, alongside Sint Eustatius and Saba.

The Democratic Party is a political party in Sint Eustatius with two seats in the 5-seat island council. In 2011, the party obtained 2 seats in the first elections after Sint Eustatius became part of the Netherlands upon the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles in 2011. However, their Island Council representative Reuben Merkman left the DP in 2014 and became an independent council member.

Same-sex marriage is legal in Aruba and Curaçao, which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands are obliged to conduct same-sex marriages following a ruling from the Supreme Court of the Netherlands on 12 July 2024. In September 2021, a lower court in Curaçao ruled that preventing same-sex couples from marrying violates the equality provisions of the Constitution of Curaçao, but left the decision of whether to legalise same-sex marriage up to the Parliament of Curaçao. In December 2022, the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba ruled on appeal that Aruba's and Curaçao's same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional. The court order was set to go into effect on 7 March 2023 if not appealed to the Supreme Court; however, the governments of both Curaçao and Aruba subsequently appealed. On 12 July 2024, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court ruling, effectively legalizing same-sex marriage in Aruba and Curaçao with immediate effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles</span> 2010 dissolution of the autonomous Caribbean country of the Netherlands

The Netherlands Antilles was an autonomous Caribbean country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It was dissolved on 10 October 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of the Netherlands</span> Sovereign state including the Netherlands

The Kingdom of the Netherlands, commonly known simply as the Netherlands, is a sovereign state consisting of a collection of constituent territories united under the monarch of the Netherlands, who functions as head of state. The realm is not a federation; it is a unitary monarchy with its largest subdivision, the eponymous Netherlands, predominantly located in Northwestern Europe and with several smaller island territories located in the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean Netherlands</span> Netherlands Caribbean municipalities

The Caribbean Netherlands is a geographic region of the Netherlands located outside of Europe, in the Caribbean, consisting of three special municipalities. These are the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, as they are also known in legislation, or the BES islands for short. The islands are officially classified as public bodies in the Netherlands and as overseas territories of the European Union; as such, European Union law does not automatically apply to them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BIJ1</span> Dutch political party

BIJ1, formerly known as Article 1, is a political party in the Netherlands. It was founded in Amsterdam in 2016 by Sylvana Simons, a television personality who was formerly connected to another party, Denk. Edson Olf has led the party since September 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2019 Dutch provincial elections</span> Dutch provincial elections held in 2019

Provincial elections were held in the Netherlands on 20 March 2019. Eligible voters elected the members of the Provincial States in the twelve provinces of the Netherlands. The elections were held on the same day as the 2019 Dutch water boards elections and, in the Caribbean Netherlands, island council elections.

The electoral colleges for the Senate are the electoral colleges of the Caribbean Netherlands and Dutch expatriates. Their members together with the members of the provincial councils in the European Netherlands choose the Senators of the Dutch Senate.

Same-sex marriage has been legal in Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba since 10 October 2012, the effective date of legislation passed by the States General of the Netherlands enabling same-sex couples to marry. The Caribbean Netherlands was the first jurisdiction in the Caribbean to legalise same-sex marriage, and was followed a few months later by French Caribbean territories, including Guadeloupe and Martinique, in May 2013.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2020 Sint Eustatius island council election</span>

Island Council elections were held in Sint Eustatius on 21 October 2020. Sint Eustatius is a special municipality of the Netherlands. The elections were originally to be held on 20 March 2019, but were postponed due to administrative intervention by the Dutch government. On 23 September 2019, a new election date was announced.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Political Party for Basic Income</span> Dutch political party

The Political Party for Basic Income, formerly known as the Basic Income Party and De Basis, is a minor political party in the Netherlands, which advocates for the implementation of a universal basic income. The party registered with the electoral council on 9 December 2013.

Island council elections were held in the Netherlands Antilles on 9 May and 23 May 2003 to elect the members of the island councils of its five island territories. The election was won by the Bonaire Patriotic Union in Bonaire, the Workers' Liberation Front in Curaçao, the Windward Islands People's Movement in Saba, the Democratic Party Statia in Sint Eustatius, and the Democratic Party in Sint Maarten.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Rock African Burial Ground</span> Burial ground in the Dutch Caribbean

The Golden Rock African Burial Ground is an unmarked historical burial ground of enslaved African men, women and children located on the premises of the airport on Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean in the ‘Cultuurvlakte’. The burial ground was part of the former Golden Rock plantation on the island.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Golden Rock (archaeological site)</span> Caribbean archeological site

Golden Rock is the name of an archaeological site in the centre of the island of Sint Eustatius, Dutch Caribbean, named after a nearby former plantation. Golden Rock was the nickname of Sint Eustatius from its prominence as a major colonial trading port in the late 17th and early 18th century. The site contains the remains of a late Saladoid village, an African burial ground, and a village of enslaved Africans.

References

  1. "Register". Kiesraad (in Dutch). 22 April 2016. Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  2. "DE BLACK AGENDA – Ubuntu Connected Front".
  3. "Kenneth Cuvalay (UCF): 'In a fair society Black people would have the same chances' | Caribbean Network". 16 March 2021.
  4. "Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen Noord Holland - 1982 t/m 2018". nlverkiezingen.com. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  5. "Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen Zuid-Holland - 1982 t/m 2018". nlverkiezingen.com. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  6. "Ubuntu Connected Front en de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen van 2021". Parlement.com (in Dutch). Retrieved 18 March 2021.
  7. "St. Eustatius Results Second Chamber Elections March 17th, 2021". St. Eustatius. 26 March 2021. Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  8. "New political party Ubuntu Connected Front takes interests of the Caribbean at heart in upcoming Dutch Parliament elections". Saba News. 2021-02-10. Retrieved 2021-03-21.
  9. "Kenneth Cuvalay: 'Met deze vervolgstap in de dekolonisatie kunnen we de geschiedenis herschrijven' - Ik zet een stap". 25 May 2021.
  10. "Opposition is mounting to Archeological Excavations on St. Eustatius". 12 July 2021.
  11. "Regillio Vaarnold: "Zwarte mensen hebben geen vrienden"". YouTube .