Decolonization

The Special Committee on Decolonization approved 14 draft resolutions today, including one addressing several critical aspects of the upcoming self-determination referendum to decide the future status of New Caledonia.

With speakers decrying the anachronistic situation and the “open wound” festering in the South Atlantic, the Special Committee on Decolonization today approved a draft resolution reiterating that a peaceful and negotiated settlement of the sovereignty dispute between Argentina and the United Kingdom was the only way to end the “special and particular” colonial situation of the Falkland Island (Malvinas).

The Special Committee on Decolonization approved three draft resolutions today, welcoming the cooperative attitude towards Tokelau in the first text, and calling for greater efforts by both administering Powers and United Nations agencies, in the others, to implement the landmark 1960 Declaration on the granting of independence to Non-Self-Governing Territories and their peoples.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today approved a draft resolution calling on the Government of the United States to assume its responsibility to expedite a process that would allow the people of Puerto Rico to exercise fully their right to self-determination and independence.

The Special Committee on Decolonization continued its discussion on the question of Western Sahara today, with the representative of the Frente Popular de Liberación de Saguía el-Hamra y Rio de Oro (Polisario Front) calling for intensified efforts to resolve the dispute over the Territory’s status, amid strong and repeated objections to his participation by the observer for Morocco.

Speakers today emphasized the right of the Saharans to seek self-determination through a referendum that would be held under United Nations auspices, as the Special Committee on Decolonization took up the question of Western Sahara on the second day of its substantive session.

Opening its 2016 substantive session today, the Special Committee on decolonization, approved without a vote two draft resolutions on the dissemination of information with Non-Self-Governing Territories, and then commenced targeted discussions on the question of Gibraltar.

MANAGUA, 2 June — As the Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization concluded this afternoon, speakers stressed the need for productive dialogue and harmonious relations in order to advance the decolonization of the world’s 17 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories.

MANAGUA, 1 June — As the Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization entered its second day, delegates and experts and expressed concern about the effects of nuclear testing on the inhabitants of French Polynesia and the military build-up on Guam, calling on the administering Powers of both Non-Self-Governing Territories to address those issues.

Following is UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s message, delivered by Rie Kadota, Senior Political Affairs Officer, Decolonization Unit, Department of Political Affairs, to the Pacific Regional Seminar on Decolonization, in Managua today: