Island Ordinances

Ordinances generally govern matters not already covered by National laws. An Ordinance is considered the most authoritative form of action taken by the Island Council, and once adopted, the ordinance becomes an established law on Saba.

The majority of ordinances deal with maintaining public health and safety, zoning, public morals, behavior, and general welfare. Examples of ordinances would be those related to noise, pet restrictions, and building and zoning regulations, to name a few.

The island council has legislative responsibility for topics that fall within the tasks and responsibilities of the island on a local level (the so-called household of the decentralized government body). For this, the island council can adopt island ordinances and island decisions that impact the general public (Algemeen verbindende voorschriften).

In several matters the executive council also has the authority to make decisions that impact the general public and sometimes the governor, in his special position in public order and safety matters, can take decisions that impact the general public on Saba on his own as well. These decisions of these different local governing bodies can come in the form of policies, plans, rules, regulations, ordinances, and single directive decisions. Even decisions in individual matters regarding a permit can have an impact on the general public or impact other interested parties.

Communication to the public of these island council, executive council, and governor decisions is important to on the one hand keep the community abreast of the relevant rules and obligations that they have to abide by and on the other hand to ensure personal rights they might have that are impacted by decisions that are taken based on the published policy, ordinance or decision.

Special Note:

Our legal team is currently developing a simplified directory of island ordinances. Please check back closer to 2025 for a comprehensive view.