A/HRC/41/44/Add.2 8. The current Head of State is King Willem-Alexander, who assumed the throne after his mother, Queen Beatrix, abdicated on 30 April 2013. The current Head of Government, in that office since 14 October 2010, is Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The executive power is held by the Council of Ministers, the deliberative organ of the Dutch Cabinet. The Cabinet usually consists of 13 to 16 ministers and a varying number of State secretaries. 9. The States General (Staten-Generaal), as the Parliament is officially known, consists of two houses: the First Chamber (Eerste Kamer), or Senate, whose members are elected by the members of the councils of the 12 provinces, and the directly elected Second Chamber (Tweede Kamer), or House of Representatives. Both houses share legislative power with the Government. The two legislative houses control government policy. The First Chamber can approve or reject legislation but does not have the power to propose or amend it. 10. Every four years, after elections to the Second Chamber have been held, the Government resigns and a process of bargaining starts between elected party leaders aspiring to form a coalition Government that will be assured of the support of a parliamentary majority. The last general elections were held on 15 March 2017 to elect all 150 members of the Second Chamber. The party of the Prime Minister, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), lost seats but remained the largest party, while the Labour Party (PvdA) saw a massive loss in vote share and seats, failing to win a single municipality for the first time in the party’s history. The Party for Freedom (PVV) made gains to reach second place, with the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), Democrats 66 (D66) and GreenLeft also increasing their number of seats. 11. Since 10 October 2010, the Kingdom of the Netherlands has consisted of four countries with varying degrees of independence: the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. Aruba was part of the Netherlands Antilles until 1 January 1986 and Curaçao and Sint Maarten were part of the Netherlands Antilles until 10 October 2010, when the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved. Curaçao, Sint Maarten and Aruba qualify as quasiautonomous countries within the Kingdom, with their own governments. The four parts of the Kingdom participate on a basis of equality as partners in the Kingdom. The other Dutch Caribbean islands – Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, which were also part of the Netherlands Antilles until 10 October 2010 – have become special municipalities within the country of the Netherlands. 12. Only the Kingdom of the Netherlands is a State. Only the Kingdom – consisting of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten together – has international legal personality. Therefore, it is only the Kingdom that concludes, ratifies and accedes to international legal agreements such as treaties and conventions. However, the geographical applicability of these agreements may be confined to Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, the European part of the Netherlands and/or the Caribbean part of the Netherlands (the islands of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba). Treaty implementation and compliance is an autonomous responsibility of the individual countries, i.e. Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and the Netherlands (for the European and Caribbean parts of the Netherlands). Nevertheless, the Kingdom of the Netherlands remains accountable under international law as the Contracting Party.1 13. The Netherlands is party to most international human rights instruments, although it has yet to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on a communications procedure. 14. The Netherlands is also a party to most European human rights instruments adopted by the Council of Europe, including: the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and its Protocols; the European Cultural Convention; the European Social Charter, its Additional Protocol, its Protocol Amending the European 1 4 See Ministry of Foreign Affairs, “Kingdom of the Netherlands: one Kingdom – four countries”, The Hague, April 2015.