(The following letter was sent on Thursday by former Minister of Finance Perry Geerlings to Mr. Peter C. Choharis of The Choharis Law Group, PLLC in Washington. Mister Coharis presented a petition on behalf of St. Maarten's parliament to the United Nations on Tuesday.)
Dear Sir,I am a citizen of Sint Maarten, Dutch West Indies. Via local media outlets I found a copy of your petition dated March 9th, 2021 to the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and to the Working Group of experts on People of African Descent (hereinafter: “the petition”).I am not writing to you to complain about the many errors on facts in the petition. The reason that I write to you is about your statement on the first page of the petition that it is filed on behalf of Parliament and Citizens of Sint Maarten.I would just like to let you know that you do not represent me as a citizen. Perhaps you represent 12 individual Members of Parliament and perhaps some associated other citizens with their own personal gain reasons.Sint Maarten is a country of laws that externally is represented by its Government, not by the aforementioned 12 Members of Parliament. On the basis of our civil law, the country cannot be bound by obligations that those 12 Members of Parliament might have entered into with you.I therefore kindly request you to clarify publicly who your contracting party to this assignment really is and who do you do (not) represent.I assume that the rules of professional conduct for you practicing law holds an ethical obligation to be clear about who the client is. And that is certainly not me, not Country Sint Maarten and not Parliament as a whole.Eagerly anticipating your response, I remain, with kind regards, Perry F.M. GeerlingsCitizen of Sint Maarten
