Senior Judge H.W. (Rian) Vogels appointed President of the Integrity Chamber of Sint Maarten

THE HAGUE/PHILIPSBURG (13 December 2019) – The Kingdom Council of Ministers today, Friday, approved the appointment of Senior Judge in The Hague Mrs. H.W. (Rian) Vogels as President of the Integrity Chamber of Sint Maarten.

Vogels will fully assume her post as of January 2020 following her swearing-in by Sint Maarten Governor Eugene Holiday. As per January 2020, Vogels will step down from her post as a senior judge in the Netherlands. The function of judge is incompatible with that of president/member of the Integrity Chamber.

Vogels has made her career in the judicial field in the Netherlands. Since 2007, she has served as a judge in Rotterdam and The Hague and is a member of The Hague court’s recusal committee (Wrakingskamer). Vogels is (vice) chairwoman of several supervisory boards. She is to continue in the latter posts.

Before becoming a judge, Vogels practiced law in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. During that time, she also was a mediator with the Dutch Mediation Institute NMI. Vogels studied law at the University of Leiden, and other universities in the United Kingdom and the United States.

The Integrity Chamber is a new institution for Sint Maarten with Vogels as its first president. She serves together with fellow members Rafael Boasman and Hans Lodder. Appointments to the Integrity Chamber are for a term of three years, with the possibility of reappointment.

Vogels’ selection as the third member of the Integrity Chamber and appointment as its president are based on a binding recommendation from Boasman and Lodder to the Kingdom Council of Ministers as prescribed in the National Ordinance Integrity Chamber.

The Integrity Chamber of Sint Maarten is an independent administrative body tasked with enhancing integrity within government and its entities with the goal of ultimately improving the confidence in government and its entities specifically and in the country overall.

The Integrity Chamber has as its core tasks to give solicited and unsolicited advice on integrity matters, propose policy, conduct concrete inquiry into suspected integrity violations, to oversee the implementation of its advice or proposals to government and its entities, and to continuously create awareness about integrity in the community.

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Related articles:
Why St. Maarten has an Integrity Chamber – Part 1
Integrity Chamber: a work in progress – Part 2
Slowly but surely the Integrity Chamber is taking shape – Part 3
Integrity Chamber’s integrity in peril