Last modified: 2023-06-03 by 
zachary harden
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The Netherlands Antilles will continue to exist not as a country but as a
(sports) region in the Caribbean. Please visit:
http://www.naoc.info/new-status/
"New status:
NAOC was founded in the year 1931 and as such is one of the oldest Olympic
Committee of the Caribbean region. On a political level it was decided in 2005
that the country Netherlands Antilles will seize to exist within a couple of
years. Together with the Antillean Minister of Sports, as well as all five
insular commissioners of sports the goal was unanimously set (29th of October
2006) to maintain NAOC and its members as umbrella sport organizations. This was
approved by the International Olympic Committee
(28th of June 2007) and ratified during the General Assembly of NAOC on the 5th
of July 2007. The name Netherlands Antilles will no longer refer to a country,
but to a region in the Caribbean. NAOC will keep its status as highest sport's
governing body for all five islands. The support towards the federations, the
islands and all athletes will be intensified in the near future."
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 4 January 2011
On Jan. 13 this year, the Executive Board of the
IOC
agreed to allow athletes
from former Netherlands Antilles to compete under the Olympic Flags as
independent athletes, just like those from
East Timor in Sydney 2000,
Yugoslavia in Barcelona 1992.
Other sources declare that even the
IAAF has withdrawn recognition to the former
Netherlands territory, then the athletes are to compete under the
Dutch flag.
Sources:
http://www.rnw.nl/caribiana/article/atleten-tot-2012-onder-olympische-vlag
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110113/ap_on_sp_ol/oly_ioc_meetings
http://www.tsn.ca/olympics/story/?id=349231
http://insidethegames.biz/summer-olympics/2012/11628-ghana-and-netherlands-antilles-set-to-miss-london-2012
http://www.thedailyherald.com/sports/local-sports/12395-netherlands-antilles-loses-olympic-charter.html
http://www.thestate.com/2011/01/13/1644125/ap-sources-ioc-suspends-ghanas.html
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 25 January 2011
Football world governing body
FIFA in its
official website has replaced the page "Netherlands
Antilles" for that of
"Curaçao"
In the link "Associations" of the same site in English, the name
"Netherlands Antilles" used to appear between "Netherlands" and "New
Caledonia"; right now it appears no more. Insted, the name "Curaçao" has
been placed between "Cuba" and "Cyprus".
A month ago, the International Olympic Committee
ruled that all athletes
from the former Netherlands Antilles would participate in the 2011 Pan
American Games and 2012 Olympic Games under the Olympic Flag as independent
Athletes; after that all of them shall compete under the Dutch flag. At the
same time IAAF (World Athletics Federation) witdrew its recognition towards
the non-existent Netherlands Antilles stating that Athletes from the former
territory shall compete for the Netherlands from now on.
Though lacking of official statements, it seems that
FIFA decided to keep
recognition to Curaçao as the legal successor of the Netherlands Antilles.
The flag shown for Curaçao in the
FIFA site is this
one, the code in use is: CUW (the same used by ISO-3166)
Juan Manuel Gabino Villascán, 6 March 2011
Though I would not normally report that an entity does not have a flag, in
this case I make an exception because quite a few of us would have expected
otherwise.
The Netherlands Antilles Olympic Committee were the Olympic Committee of the
Netherlands Antilles. The NAOC does have an Olympic Emblem, and we tend to
equate that with having a flag. The NAOC has informed me though, that while they
have used the NAOC emblem on their merchandising, they have never used it as a
flag. In fact, the only flag the NAOC used has always been the national flag,
which for most of the time the
IOC
recognised it (1950-2011) have been the subsequent flags of the Netherlands
Antilles (1954-1986-2010).
The organisation has been quite pleasant to correspond with and they've been
quick to answer my queries, which was a welcome difference from the struggle I
usual experience. They were even kind enough to point out that the NAOC has in
fact lost IOC
recognition, and that London 2012 will be the last time its athletes will be
allowed to compete as a team, be it under the Olympic Flag. They consider it
likely that after that, their athletes will have to compete under the Dutch
flag.
[I fear they may be right, but I still have some hope that this case will wake
the IOC
up and will make them look at the positions of regions that are one or two
oceans away from their seat of sovereign government. Some form of Regional OC
under the umbrella of either the NOC or the Continental Associations would seem
to make more sense than practically disallowing certain athletes to take part
among their equals.]
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 April 2012
That sounds strange to me. One would expect that at least
Curaçao and
Sint Maarten would be
recognized separately, considering that they have not integrated into the
Netherlands like the other
three islands and might somehow be considered the successors of the Netherlands
Antilles, in Olympic affairs at least. After all,
Aruba was recognized after
having broken away from the Netherlands Antilles, was it? And the status of
Curaçao and
Sint Maarten is now the same
as that of Aruba, is it?
Tomislav Todorović, 19 April 2012
It's not their status that is different. It's the rules of the
IOC
that are different. Under the current rules, Existing NOC-s stay in existence as
long as their entity remains in existence, but if Aruba would dissolve its NOC
and create a new one, they would not be considered independent enough to have
their own NOC either.
And yes, it is strange. Mind you, there are dependencies whose athletes are not
allowed to go to the Olympics at all. Maybe the Kingdom of the
Netherlands would at least be
able to find a way to organise an auxiliary NOC bureau somewhere transatlantic.
But still strange, yes.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 April 2012
![[Curaçao-Sint Maarten Olympisch Comité fictional flag]](../images/a/an@cs!oc.gif)
image by
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 April 2012
There's no status for this flag.
Peter Hans van den Muijzenberg, 19 April 2012
