Parliament approves
law on self defence
~ Info campaign will follow ~
WILLEMSTAD--It has taken three years, but Parliament unanimously approved the law on self-defence in its public meeting on Tuesday.
The Members of Parliament (MPs) also passed a motion Tuesday urging Government to start an information campaign about the law and to evaluate the law’s effectiveness after one year.
The law on self-defence is an amendment of the Penal Code giving citizens more right to self-defence. They would not have to justify an act of self-defence in their house or business and the onus of proof lies with the Prosecutor’s Office.
The law currently states that citizens have to prove that they acted in self-defence which in practice proves to be a difficult task, because often there are no witnesses.
The amendment to the law will create the situation that when a citizen attacks a criminal who is in his or her house, yard or an enclosed space such as an office or a restaurant, it will automatically be considered self-defence.
National Alliance MP William Marlin said he looked forward to the implementation of the law. He said he hoped that in the long run, everyone would understand the proper protecting of his home and property, and that this would be a turning point for those planning to engage in wrong activities.
Parliament was concerned about the transitional period between the current law and the introduction of the new law on self-defence. Justice Minister David Dick said an instruction has been sent already to the Prosecutor’s Office indicating that it should start taking into consideration that Parliament had passed the law.
For the law to be enacted, it has to be published. However, before publishing the law, Government has to inform the public about the consequences.
“It’s not the same as the American law where a man’s house is his castle and we can start shooting at anyone who is on our property,” PNP Parliamentarian Faroe Metry stated.
Dick said he hoped he would be able to come back to Parliament in two weeks to present his information campaign. In the motion passed by Parliament, Government is urged to carry out the campaign in the three official languages in the Netherlands Antilles: Dutch, English and Papiamentu.
Democratic Party MP Erno Labega echoed the call for a thorough information campaign and asked the Minister to see to it that this campaign was in proper proportion on all five islands of the Antilles.
The Forsa Kòrsou political faction expressed its concerns about the text of the law stating that self-defence is allowed within the immediate proximity. Glenn Camelia said the term was very subjective and susceptible to differences of interpretation.
Dick believed that this too had to be explained in the planned information campaign.
