Decolonization

In a message to participants of the Caribbean regional seminar on decolonization, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon encouraged the Special Committee on Decolonization to work towards an action-oriented dialogue at all levels with the Non-Self Governing Territories and administering Powers alike, as he launched the work of the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2011-2020).

The Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, also known as the Special Committee of 24, will hold its annual regional seminar in Kingstown, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, from 31 May to 2 June.

Addressing the first meeting of the 2011 substantive session of the Special Committee on Decolonization, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called today for “concrete results” in the quest for self-determination by the world’s 16 remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Concluding its 2010 session, the Special Committee on Decolonization unanimously approved today a draft resolution, which, if adopted by the General Assembly, would pave the way for the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism beginning in 2011, as well as a draft decision by which the Assembly would designate 14 December as the day for commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples.

After hearing petitioners on the question of the Falkland Islands (Malvinas) as well as a statement by the Foreign Minister of Argentina, the Special Committee on Decolonization recommended today that the General Assembly reiterate its call for direct negotiations between Argentina and the United Kingdom over that Non-Self-Governing Territory.

Expressing deep concern that colonialism had not yet been totally eradicated 50 years after the General Assembly adopted the seminal Declaration on Decolonization, the “Special Committee of 24” unanimously approved today a draft resolution reaffirming the obligations of all administering Powers to create the necessary economic, social and other conditions to enable Non-Self-Governing Territories under their purview to achieve genuine self-government and economic self-reliance.

Speaking out against the militarization of Guam by the United States, several petitioners today called upon members of the Special Committee on Decolonization to visit the Non-Self-Governing Territory and see the situation for themselves as soon as possible.

The Special Committee on Decolonization today approved a draft resolution calling on the Government of the United States to expedite a process that would allow the Puerto Rican people to exercise fully their right to self-determination and independence, and for the General Assembly formally to consider the situation concerning Puerto Rico, which the world body had not formally taken up since the Territory’s removal from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories in 1953.

Resuming its 2010 session this morning, the Special Committee on Decolonization approved requests for hearings from several Non-Self-Governing Territories in the coming days, with a petitioner from Gibraltar asserting that 50 years after the General Assembly had passed its historic resolution 1514 (XV), which called for the immediate transfer of power from all colonized Territories to their peoples, an assessment of the overall decolonization process was needed.

“Our task this morning is simple — to look at the way forward,” Donatus St. Aimee (Saint Lucia), Chairman of the Special Committee on Decolonization, said today as that body began the final session of its Pacific Regional Seminar on Implementation of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism.