A new president has been appointed to lead the Joint Court of Justice serving Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Aruba, and the Caribbean Netherlands.
S.A., or Sigmar Carmelia, will officially take up the role once the Royal Decree is signed. His appointment was approved by the Kingdom Council of Ministers following a nomination put forward by State Secretary for Justice and Security Teun Struycken van Bruggen.
Carmelia is no stranger to the Court. He has served as a substitute member since 2014. Before that, he worked as a deputy judge and subdistrict court judge at the District Court of Gelderland, and also served as a lawyer and legal adviser with the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights.
He succeeds Mauritsz de Kort, who stepped down as president of the Court on November 4, 2025, after being appointed Governor of Curaçao.
The appointment marks an important transition in leadership for one of the Kingdom’s highest judicial institutions.