Special Committee on Decolonization to Hold Caribbean Regional Seminar

 

in Quito, Ecuador, 28-30 May

The Special Committee on Decolonization will hold its Caribbean Regional Seminar in Quito, Ecuador, from 28 to 30 May.

Proceedings will focus on the third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020), as the Seminar reviews developments during the first quarter of the International Decade and related novel trends affecting decolonization.

The Seminar will discuss the situation concerning the Non-Self-Governing Territories within the remit of the Special Committee in the Caribbean, Pacific and other regions, as well as assistance from the United Nations system assistance.  The Seminar’s conclusions and recommendations will be considered by the Special Committee at its substantive session in June, and subsequently transmitted to the General Assembly.

Presiding over the Seminar will be Diego Morejón-Pazmiño ( Ecuador), Chairman of the Special Committee, which is formally known as the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.  It is also called the Special Committee of 24 or “C-24”.

Other participants will include a specially constituted delegation of the Special Committee, comprising the bureau and members of regional groups, United Nations Member States, including administering Powers, as well as representatives of the Non-Self-Governing Territories, civil society and non-governmental organizations and experts.

Members of the Special Committee are Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Chile, China, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Ethiopia, Fiji, Grenada, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Mali, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Syria, Timor-Leste, Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania and Venezuela.

The Non-Self-Governing Territories are American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands (Malvinas)[*], Gibraltar, Guam, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, Tokelau, Turks and Caicos Islands, United States Virgin Islands and Western Sahara.  The administering Powers are France, New Zealand, United Kingdomand the United States.  The annual Secretariat working papers on each Territory are available on the United Nations decolonization website:  www.un.org/en/decolonization.

* *** *

[*]  A dispute exists between the Governments of Argentina and the United Kingdom concerning sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) (see document ST/CS/SER.A/42).

For information media • not an official record