Minister Plenipotentiary Wuite: Recruitment Opens November for tailor-made Legislation Writing Program

GREAT BAY – The Minister Plenipotentiary of Sint Maarten in The Hague, Jorien Wuite, together with the support of her Cabinet, have over the past couple of months explored various avenues to contribute to building sustainable capacity on Sint Maarten, for instance, in the field of legislative writing, a field in which there is an immense scarcity on the labor market.

Under the coordination of the Cabinet of the Minister Plenipotentiary and in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Affairs, cooperation was sought with the Academy of Legislation in The Hague Netherlands.

The law academy was established in 2001 to promote the quality of legislation of the Dutch Government. The Academy offers a two-year trainee program for recently graduated lawyers, but also short courses for civil servants, as well as tailor-made courses.

The idea then arose to create a tailor-made program of one-year for Sint Maarten young legal professionals and scholars that recently completed their program in the Netherlands.

They will be offered one year of training at the Academy of Legislation where they will be afforded internships in which they will gain experience at a Dutch Ministry.

Upon completion of the one-year training, they will the offered a contract by the Government of Sint Maarten for a minimum term of five years.

The Dutch Ministry of Interior and Kingdom Affairs has offered their support for this initiative and has therefore promised to finance short-term technical assistance in the field of legislation to assist the process.

As result of this partnership, the Cabinet has paved the way to ensure that the process of “building back better” through the strengthening of Sint Maarten’s legislative capacity can commence. As a young country in development, it is of paramount importance that the legislative capacity is up to par.

Initially, the program was scheduled to start on 1 September 2019, however, due to the short time frame this was no longer feasible as unfortunately two potential candidates withdrew their interest.

Therefore, the focus is on recruiting a number of enthusiastic young Sint Maarten legal professionals and recently graduated students who aspire to work in the field of legislation on Sint Maarten.

The recruitment process is scheduled to start in November 2019 in order for the selected candidates to start the program on September 1, 2020.

For more information and updates go to www.kgmsxm.nl

Photo caption: Minister Plenipotentiary Jorien Wuite.