Mr President, Excellencies, Ladies and gentlemen,

The national anthem of Ghana, which the Police Band performed so beautifully to open this morning’s proceedings, contains several lines that reflect Ghana’s sometimes difficult past.

I am thinking in particular of this words from the first verse:
Help us to resist oppressors’ rule
with all our will and might for evermore.

These are sentences in which the colonial past resonates, certainly also the history of slavery and not only for Ghana. As the Ambassador for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, I feel personally addressed by them.

Fort Elmina, here on Ghana’s coast, stands as a powerful reminder of dark chapters in my country’s past. It bears witness to the role the Netherlands played in the trans-Atlantic slave trade. This is a chapter that cannot be unwritten or undone, and that resonates in present and future generations. It is therefore important that our shared past remains part of our dialogue today and tomorrow. And that’s why I greatly appreciate the invitation to be here.

As you know, in 2022 former Dutch Prime Minister Rutte apologised on behalf of the Dutch government for these dark pages of our history. In 2023, the King reiterated these apologies and asked for forgiveness. Today, at the invitation of the Republic of Ghana, I, together with my German colleague, will focus on the possible return of objects of cultural significance.

Since 2022, the Netherlands’ government has adopted a policy that enables the return of culturally significant objects, that were unlawfully taken from other territories in a colonial context. The government considers such returns part and parcel of a much needed process of addressing historical injustices.

Since adoption of the policy, the Netherlands has returned objects to Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Nigeria, and the United States. Examples are the Canon of Kandy to Sri Lanka in 2023, the Lombok treasure to Indonesia in 2023 and – shown here behind me - a collection of Benin Bronzes to Nigeria in 2025.

Returning objects often provides a positive boost to cultural and museum cooperation, allowing us to tell these important stories together. Our policy is demand-driven: the process begins when a country requests the return of an object that it considers its own. We regard it as our duty to make our collections transparent, through digitalisation and publication, including available provenance information. Joint provenance research can be initiated in cases where there is uncertainty on how the object came into Netherlands’ possession. An independent advisory committee, working closely with experts from the country of origin, assesses requests on the basis of provenance research.

The Dutch government finally decides on return. If the advice is positive, the object is returned unconditionally, in collaboration with the country of origin. After return, that country takes responsibility for the object and decides where it belongs.

To strengthen ties between European and African museums, the EU-African Museum Partnership was launched in Addis-Abeba on 29 April, bringing together African and European museums that want to work more closely on these issues. The Netherlands is proud to be a co-donor, alongside France, Germany, and Belgium. Here in Ghana, we have started discussions with the Honourable Minister for Culture and with Professor Kodzo Gavua and his National Focal Team on the restitution of stolen cultural heritage.

As mentioned, the first step is to show which objects in Dutch collections are likely linked to Ghana. I am therefore proud to present to the Honorable Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Ghana a catalogue of objects from the national ethnographic collections in the Netherlands, the World Museum. The exact provenance of these objects is not yet fully known, but this catalogue is a starting point for continuing this return process together.

My government and I stand ready to take next steps, in particular in case other countries are as interested in this as Ghana is.

We thank our Ghanaian hosts for the opportunity to explain this policy at this important conference.

Thank you.