The legalisation of same-sex marriage is due to two human rights organisations that filed a case with the joint court of Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba. That court considers it discriminatory that persons of the same sex cannot marry.

The judge had previously urged the legislature to make same-sex marriage legal, but nothing came of it. The verdict shows some impatience: the judge has now made the final decision.

"A very important step for human rights in Curaçao and Aruba," says Janice Tjon Sien Kie of the Human Rights Caribbean Foundation, who brought the case to court in Curaçao.