Same-sex marriages are not performed in Aruba, Curaçao, or Sint Maarten, which are constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The islands were obliged after several court rulings to register any marriage (including same-sex marriages) registered in the Kingdom, but this primarily considers residency rights, and they do not have to give same-sex marriages the same legal effect as opposite-sex marriages. Marriage in the European territory of the Netherlands, as well as in the Caribbean municipalities of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, is open to any two people irrespective of sex.
Aruba has recognized registered partnerships providing almost all of the rights and benefits of marriage since September 2021. That same month, a lower court in Curaçao ruled that preventing same-sex couples from marrying violates the equality provisions of the Constitution of Curaçao, but left the decision of whether to legalise same-sex marriage up to the Parliament of Curaçao. In December 2022, the Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba ruled that Aruba's and Curaçao's same-sex marriage bans were unconstitutional. The court order was set to go into effect on 7 March 2023 if not appealed to the Supreme Court of the Netherlands; however, the governments of both Curaçao and Aruba subsequently appealed.
Registered partnerships
Registered partnerships, offering several of the rights, benefits and obligations of marriage, have been recognized in Aruba for different-sex and same-sex couples since 1 September 2021.
In November 2015, Prime Minister Mike Eman promised to support bills legalizing registered partnerships for same-sex couples. On 8 September 2016, the Parliament of Aruba voted in favor of an amendment to the Aruban Civil Code legalizing registered partnerships for both same-sex and opposite-sex couples. The amendment gives couples in registered partnerships almost all of the rights offered to married couples, such as access to spousal pensions and the possibility to make emergency medical decisions for a partner. Governor Fredis Refunjol granted royal assent on 23 September 2016, and the law came into effect on 1 September 2021, after the government published a commencement order.
Following the passage of a registered partnership bill in Aruba, LGBT organizations in both Curaçao and Sint Maarten announced they were hopeful such laws would also be approved in their respective countries. After an amendment giving cohabiting couples, including same-sex couples, some limited legal rights was proposed in the Parliament of Curaçao in 2017, former Prime Minister Gerrit Schotte suggested that a referendum on the legalisation of same-sex marriage be held on the island, though no referendum was held.
Same-sex marriage
Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten have separate civil codes, in which marriage is defined as the union between a man and a woman. However, marriage licenses and other documents regarding civil status from elsewhere in the Kingdom (including the European and Caribbean parts of the country of the Netherlands) must be accepted by these constituent countries as a result of Article 40 of the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and therefore registration of a same-sex marriage from the Netherlands is possible in all countries. Acceptance and registration of the same-sex marriage does not mean automatic equal treatment: if a facility (e.g. social benefits) is only open to married couples, this applies in certain cases only to heterosexual couples (the couples as defined in the civil codes of the countries). When a facility, however, is also open to non-married couples, then same-sex couples must also be included based on non-discrimination rules.
Case law
As the civil codes do not mention same-sex marriage, several court cases have given information on the status of same-sex marriages in the three islands. As the jurisprudence of the Kingdom is dependent on each other, decisions in other countries have in the same situation the same validity. Before the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao and Sint Maarten were part of the latter country, and as such their civil codes are based on the Civil Code of the Netherlands Antilles. An overview of relevant cases is discussed below.