ECYS Minister Melissa Gumbs with the CER Delegation and local participants.
PHILIPSBURG--Cultural heritage emergency specialists, archivists, disaster response professionals, and regional coordinators from around the world are gathering in St Maarten this week for the 2026 Annual General Meeting of the Network of CER Regional Hubs, focused on strengthening international cooperation in protecting cultural heritage during crises and emergencies.
The meeting is being held from May 18 to May 22, 2026, and is hosted by the Cultural Emergency Response (CER) Regional Hub in the Caribbean together with the St Maarten Sub Hub.
The week-long programme is coordinated by Marcellia Henry and includes representatives from Aruba, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Curaçao, Kosovo, Suriname, the Netherlands, Barbados, Jamaica, Guatemala, Ukraine, Lebanon, St. Maarten, and St. Martin.
The Annual General Meeting officially opened with remarks from Melissa Gumbs, who thanked Cultural Emergency Response and the Caribbean Regional Branch of the International Council on Archives (CARBICA) for organising the event and selecting St Maarten as this year’s host country.
“This Annual General Meeting provides a valuable platform for meaningful dialogue, knowledge exchange, capacity building, and regional partnership development,” Gumbs stated.
“The planned discussions, training opportunities, and site visits throughout the week will undoubtedly strengthen our collective ability to respond effectively to cultural emergencies and safeguard the heritage that defines our communities and identities.”
Additional welcome remarks were delivered by Sanne Letschert and Max Scriwanek. During the opening programme, Henry delivered a keynote presentation highlighting Sint Maarten’s recovery efforts following Hurricane Irma, particularly in relation to cultural, heritage, and documentary institutions.
She also noted that Sint Maarten officially became a CER Sub Hub in June 2025. According to the statement, Sint Maarten now coordinates cultural emergency response efforts within the northeastern Caribbean and supports nearby islands including Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Sint Eustatius, Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saba.
The AGM programme was compiled by Freddie Thomson and includes presentations, workshops, training sessions, tabletop exercises, and collaborative strategy discussions focused on emergency preparedness, cultural protection, and regional response coordination.
Conference sessions throughout the week are highlighting achievements and lessons learned from CER Regional Hubs in the Caribbean, Levant, Western Balkans, Black Sea region, and Central America.
Topics being discussed include crisis management and emergency decision-making, psychosocial wellbeing in emergency response work, regional emergency response case studies and lessons learned, development of new large-scale response workflows, public engagement in cultural protection, and continuity planning and simulation exercises for cultural emergency preparedness.
Participants will also visit several local cultural institutions and heritage locations, including the Saint Martin Archives on the northern side of the island, cultural sites in Marigot, the Sint Maarten Library, and other heritage venues in Philipsburg.
According to the release, the Annual General Meeting provides an important opportunity to
deepen international cooperation and strengthen the role of cultural heritage protection within disaster and emergency response systems.
