The current Constitution of Suriname ( nl, Grondwet van Suriname, links=no) was adopted on 30 September 1987, following a referendum. It marked the return to democracy after the Bouterse military dictatorship of the 1980s.

History

After the Batavian Republic took over the Colony of Suriname from the

Society of Suriname The Society of Suriname (Dutch: ''Sociëteit van Suriname'') was a Dutch private company, modelled on the ideas of Jean-Baptiste Colbert and set up on 21 May 1683 to profit from the management and defense of the Dutch Republic's colony of Surinam ...

in 1795, the Dutch government issued various government regulations for Suriname (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''Regeringsreglement voor Suriname''), establishing the government of the colony. In 1865, a new government regulation replaced the previous regulation of 1832, which theoretically gave Suriname some limited self-rule. The colonial elite was given the right to elect a Colonial Council (Dutch: ''Koloniale Raad'') which would co-govern the colony together with the Governor-General appointed by the

Dutch crown The Council of Ministers of the Kingdom ( nl, Ministerraad van het Koninkrijk or ''Rijksministerraad'') is the executive council of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which is a state consisting of four constituent countries: Aruba, Curaçao, the Ne ...

. Among others, the Colonial Council was allowed to decide over the colony's budget, which was subject to approval by the Dutch crown, but which did not see any involvement of Dutch parliament. In the wake of the 1922 Dutch constitutional revision, in which the term "

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

" was replaced by the term "

overseas territory A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal. In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or an ...

", the 1865 government regulation was replaced by the Basic Law of Suriname () on 1 April 1937. This Basic Law renamed the Colonial Council to Estates of Suriname () and increased the membership from 13 to 15. After the Second World War, during which the

Dutch government-in-exile The Dutch government-in-exile ( nl, Nederlandse regering in ballingschap), also known as the London Cabinet ( nl, Londens kabinet), was the government in exile of the Netherlands, supervised by Queen Wilhelmina, that fled to London after the Germ ...

had pledged to review the relationship between the Netherlands and its colonies, the Basic Law was extensively revised. In March 1948, revisions to the Basic Law were adopted by Dutch parliament, which introduced

universal suffrage Universal suffrage (also called universal franchise, general suffrage, and common suffrage of the common man) gives the right to vote to all adult citizens, regardless of wealth, income, gender, social status, race, ethnicity, or political stan ...

for both men and women, which increased the membership of the Estates from 15 to 21, and which introduced a College of General Government () which was to assist the Governor in the everyday government of the colony, and which was the precursor to the Cabinet of Ministers. The new constitution took effect in July 1948. After the

Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands (in Dutch: ''Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden''; in Papiamentu: ''Statuut di Reino Hulandes'') is a legal instrument that sets out the political relationship between the four countries th ...

was proclaimed on 15 December 1954, Suriname ceased to be an overseas possession of the Netherlands, and rather became a

constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands , national_anthem = ) , image_map = Kingdom of the Netherlands (orthographic projection).svg , map_width = 250px , image_map2 = File:KonDerNed-10-10-10.png , map_caption2 = Map of the four constituent countries shown to scale , capital = ...

, in which the Netherlands Antilles, Suriname and the Netherlands itself cooperated on a basis of equality. A new Basic Law that reflected the new constitutional arrangements was adopted by the Estates of Suriname in 1955. The first constitution of independent Suriname was adopted in 1975, and was modeled after the

Constitution of the Netherlands The Constitution for the Kingdom of the Netherlands ( nl, Grondwet voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) is one of two fundamental documents governing the Kingdom of the Netherlands as well as the fundamental law of the European territory of the ...

. It was suspended after the

1980 Surinamese coup d'état The 1980 Surinamese coup d'état, usually referred to as the Sergeants' Coup (), was a military coup in Suriname which occurred on 25 February 1980, when a group of 16 sergeants () of the Surinamese Armed Forces (SKM) led by Dési Bouterse ...

and was replaced by the current constitution after being approved in a referendum held on 30 September 1987.

References

External links

Constitution of Suriname
{{Americas topic, Constitution of, title=Constitutions of states and dependencies in the Americas Politics of Suriname Suriname 1987 in law