Our Team

A young Professional banker in his thirties abandons his professional career in order to pursue and defend the Right of Self-determination for the Bonairain Natives Because of the illegal status not of their choice and unequal rights that the Natives found themselves after the dissolution of the Nederland Antilles in 2010.

The natives found themselves in an illegal integration of the Nederland’s in which they never chose in any constitutional referendum to date.

Davika Bissessar – Shaw – was born in a small village called Kitty on the Atlantic coast city of Georgetown, Guyana, She has seven siblings, daughter of Banmatee and Cyril Shaw. Her father owned and operated a printery in the legendary area of Tiger Bay. Then as faith would have it that in the 1930’s - 1940s, he moved the printery to his other property on Wellington Street, Georgetown close to the political party PPP’s Freedom House. The Arcade Printery as it was called and her parents, played an important role in the fight for independence of British Guiana. In the beginning, with the atmosphere of the West Indian region Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica were singing the freedom song as they wanted out of the British rule.  

In 1950 her father was approached by Cheddie Jagan and LFS Burnham, the founding fathers of Guyana’s Independence Movement, to print a newspaper, which was called the “Thunder”, to distribute to the entire 83,000 square miles, to every part in the remote areas of Guyana in order to update, promote and encourage the people to get ready for an independent Guyana and to get rid of the British Reign.

Her father was very willing to support his brothers in their time of need with equipment and materials and even with the risk of being arrested for the printing of the Thunder newspaper. In the 50s and 60s, The Jagans and the PPP were deemed Communist by the British although there was no evidence of this. With the country under British Monarchy as a territory, they suspended the Constitution, took over the country by military rule, putting political leaders including Burham and the Jagans in jail and under house arrest. The Thunder then became even more important to the masses. Since this was illegal to do, the British Government posted military guards with guns outside the printery. Her mother, Bhanmatee, through subterfuge risked her life by passing the British soldiers with the editorial draft before publication. These drafts were taken to the home of the Jagans where they were under house arrest with armed soldiers at guard.

Davika was born and raised in that new era of freedom and post colonialism where portraits of Mahatma Gandhi hung prominently almost everywhere. At a tender age of 21 years she got married and had four children and subsequently move to Bonaire with her husband, Tulsie Bissessar, a Ship owner and Captain as his cargo vessels - M.S Keval and M.V Daniella B was chartered by a Dutch company in Curacao to transport containers to St. Maarten.

On Bonaire, the first house they lived was in Belnem and as fate would have it, her next door neighbour was Mr. James Fines. On her arrival, she was shocked to see that there was no playground for kids and found this to be an injustice  to the people of Bonaire who were supposed to be living in a first world country, Dutch Kingdom, lacking such basic infrastructure.

 Prior to coming to Bonaire, she was part of a group of residents’ association who refurbished their neighbourhood playground in Bel-Air Park, Georgetown. She sat down and drew up a plan with the idea of a playground, and the name of the foundation. She asked thirteen persons to join her and established a foundation, We Dare To Care, to build and run a Recreational Facility. With the likes of Franklyn Antion, Daisy Coffee, Anthony Nicholas, James Finies and others, before the playground idea could pick up any momentum because they had no land nor money, 12 members resigned, reason being that it was an impossible mission. James Finies was the only person who stayed on and with Davika, they got the land and the money to build the playground and today the park is standing proud even though the Local nor the Dutch governments refused to acknowledge and recognize it nor finance it.

The Netherlands Antilles were dissolved in 2010, and in the process our island Bonaire was incorporated into the Dutch Constitution without the consent of the Bonairean people. Mr. Finies abandoned his banking career and stood up in support for the Bonaire people. At that time, Davika and her husband were supporters in the background with advice and resources. However, slowly the political leaders went on a campaign to remove every person who stood next to him. There were hundreds of people including his own family. Subsequently, Davika decided to stand alongside him in support and thereafter founded the organization, Bonaire Human Rights in 2020.

Her famous words: “Why help James Finies and Bonaire? Because it is the right thing to do.” For the realization of civil, cultural, economic, political, and social rights, including the right to development and to achieve the right to self-determination for full self-government and political equality.

Sedney B. Marten (5th of June, 1962, Curaçao) is a creative mind who conveys feeling and reason - contradictory perspectives - in the right dose.

As the youngest of eight brothers and sisters, he had the opportunity to move to The Netherlands after secondary school to study and turn his hobby into his career: introducing and guiding young minds into the interesting world of arts and creativity.

As a teacher of Cultural and Artistic Education, Art and Cultural History and Papiamento, he already had the ability to think out of the box, as a visual artist, illustrator, poet and author that became his way of life. From an early age on he became aware of his cultural identity and understood the power of excellent knowledge and command of his own mother tongue. It became the basis for broadening his interest in other (foreign) languages.

In 2000 he published the collection of poems Entre Sintí i Sintimentu, un Lucha, a collection of poems that expresses the constant human inner struggle between emotion and intellect. His good command of wordplay and his love for his native language, Papiamento, is particularly evident in critical pieces about sensitive issues (thoughts, as he prefers to call them) that he regularly publishes in various local newspapers since 2005. In addition to his intention to challenge the reader to think and to make him (more) aware of social developments around him, the articles and thoughts serve as a kind of outlet for him personally. Releasing a selection of these thoughts, a collection of these thoughts, is on the agenda.

After a period of teaching, he was an inspector of education and coordinator of the Department of Education of the former Netherlands Antilles, on Bonaire. He was also a part-time coordinator for the University of Curaçao (UoC, formerly known as University of the Netherlands Antilles (UNA)) at the beginning of the teacher training course on Bonaire and study career counsellor at the Second Degree Teacher Training course of the UNA on Bonaire.

He is co-founder and a board member of Fundashon Akademia Papiamentu, a foundation that strives for the protection, promotion and reinforcement of Papiamento. 

Currently, he is a senior policy officer at the Department of Education, Culture and Science of the Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland on Bonaire and is responsible for assigned tasks regarding examinations, culture and media.

Because of his intrinsic objection to injustice, in any form what so ever, to both employees and citizens, he affiliated to Bonaire, Saint Eustatius and Saba section of the STrAF labour union, as a member of the steering committee.

On the question of what he would like for future generations of Bonaire, he is very emphatic with his answer: “I want to see Bonaire on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, with a democratic government, as a result of the right of self-determination for all citizens, by virtue of which they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

It is also with coming generations in mind that he is part of the NUKEB committee that strives to get Bonaire back on the UN list of Non-Self-Governing Territories (NSGT).

Phenice “Marbi” Frans Piar is a Bonairean educator, human rights advocate, and community leader. She is a member of Muhernan Fuerte, the Women’s Wing of Partido Pueblo Progresivo, and serves as an Ambassador of the Bonaire Human Rights Organization. Deeply rooted in Bonaire’s Afro-Indigenous heritage and the Papiamentu language, she advocates for cultural preservation, parental rights, and  education. Her work focuses on protecting the identity, dignity, and future of Bonaire’s children while advancing community-led development and human rights for the Bonairean people at the local and international level.

Joseline Thielman is an Ambassador of the Bonaire Human Rights Organization and a member of Muhernan Fuerte, the Women’s Wing of Partido Pueblo Progresivo. She is also a mother, veteran policewoman, and human rights advocate from Bonaire with over 30 years of service in law enforcement.

Speaking first as a parent and second as a police officer, she has courageously brought international attention to the systemic discrimination faced by Bonairean children within the education system. At the United Nations, Thielman exposed the bullying, psychological abuse, and marginalization suffered by children—including her own—due to policies that suppress their native language and equate intelligence with Dutch fluency.