Dealing with archives from colonial regions in the Netherlands

On the basis of the advice and recommendations of the Council, the Minister will focus on three aspects, in an equal dialogue and good coordination with the countries concerned:

• Inventory of the provenance of state archives from the colonial past
  • The minister will focus the inventory on two types of State Archives (or parts thereof):
    • Involuntary loss of possession: archives that have been ceded to the Netherlands without consent or under pressure.
    • Other reasons for relocation: archives whose legal ownership is vested in another country, but which are kept in the Netherlands for practical reasons – for example due to management circumstances.
• Dealing with requests for the return of these archives
  • In line with international law, requests for restitution of State Archives are in principle made from State to State, unless a State requests restitution to a community. For the countries of Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten and the public entities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, requests are handled in the same way as between States.
  • Private persons or organisations wishing to apply for restitution must first apply to their own government, which may then submit the application to the State of the Netherlands.
  • Two restitution applications have already been submitted to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science. An independent committee of experts will advise the Minister about these requests (comparable with the Advisory Committee for Colonial Collections):
    • In 2024, Curaçao submitted a request regarding the repatriation of the so-called Old Archives of Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba until 1828 and Archives Curaçao, Bonaire and Aruba after 1828. These archives are currently managed by the National Archives in the Netherlands, where the storage conditions were better at the time and where the archives could be inventoried.
    • Indonesia also submitted a restitution application at the beginning of 2026. This request relates to various archives formed during the war of decolonisation. The response to both requests indicated that they will be dealt with in conjunction with this policy response.
• Digitisation and improved access to these archives
  • The Netherlands supports various programmes and initiatives that contribute to broad access to sources about the shared history of the Kingdom and the former colonised countries. Digitisation and improved access to archives play a central role in this.
  • The inventory of the provenance of colonial state archives forms an important basis for future digitisation and access projects.
  • The prioritisation of future projects will take into account the wishes and priorities of the countries of origin. In doing so, a connection will be sought as much as possible with existing initiatives to make the national archives from the colonial past present in the Netherlands findable, usable, interpretable and visible.