Speech of James Finies for UN Roundtable: “Unity in Action: Accelerating SDG Implementation and Building a Better Future for All”.
I stand before you today not just as an advocate of civil society, but as a voice for those who have always been left behind.
My name is James Finies. I come from Bonaire, a small island in the southern Caribbean, just 50 miles off the coast of Venezuela. Nos ta papia Papiamento – we speak Papiamento – alongside Haitian Creole, the only two surviving native languages of the Caribbean. And yet, in the 21st century, my island remains colonized.
We are denied political representation, with laws imposed from The Hague. We are erased from the global narrative and excluded from decisions about our own future.
As we gather to accelerate the Sustainable Development Goals and look toward the Pact for the Future, we must confront a critical and uncomfortable truth:
Can there be true sustainable development in territories that are still not decolonized, are still colonized?
Can we speak of justice, while international covenants on civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights – and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – do not apply to us?
On Bonaire, these protections are not realities. They are promises unfulfilled.
Our histories were never written. And if we do not act now, we will be erased – not just from the past, but from the very future the world is pledging to build.
The Pact for the Future must not be built on exclusion. It must recognize and rectify ongoing colonialism. Otherwise, it risks repeating the same patterns of silence, marginalization, and injustice.
Sustainable development cannot exist without dignity. Without rights – cultural, social, economic, political – there is no justice. And no sustainable future.
Even the digital world reflects our disappearance.
In Bonaire, our language Papiamento is disappearing from classrooms. Our flag has been replaced. Our online presence rewritten. New settlers arrive while native voices are silenced. Since 2010, our native population has fallen from 80% to just 30%. We are witnessing ethnic and cultural erasure in real time.
And yet – I speak to you not in despair, but in defiance.
Our culture still breathes, Our language still lives, Our spirit endures.
We are resilient. We refuse to be erased.
The Millennium Development Goals were once used to justify our recolonization and deepen our marginalization. We cannot allow the Sustainable Development Goals – or the Pact for the Future – to make the same mistake.
So we say: Decolonize the SDGs. Decolonize Bonaire. Decolonize the future.
Today, I call on the United Nations – and on the world: See us. Hear us. Include us. Protect us. Stand with us.
Let us build a future where no one – truly no one – is left behind.
