FOCUS OF SEMINAR

The main focus of the seminar will be to assess the situation in the Non-Self-Governing Territories, in particular their constitutional evolution towards self-determination. It will also identify areas where the international community could increase and enhance its participation in assistance programmes and adopt a comprehensive and integrated approach to ensuring the political and sustainable socio-economic development of the Territories concerned.

Non-Self-Governing Territories

The Non-Self-Governing Territories are: Western Sahara in Africa; American Samoa (United States), Guam (United States), New Caledonia (France), Pitcairn (United Kingdom), and Tokelau (New Zealand) in Asia and the Pacific; Anguilla (United Kingdom), Bermuda (United Kingdom), British Virgin Islands (United Kingdom), Cayman Islands (United Kingdom), Falkland Islands/Malvinas (United Kingdom), Gibraltar (United Kingdom), Montserrat (United Kingdom), St. Helena (United Kingdom), Turks and Caicos Islands (United Kingdom), and United States Virgin Islands (United States) in the Atlantic.

Committee Members

Members of the Special Committee of 24 are: Antigua and Barbuda, Bolivia, Chile, China, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Cuba, Ethiopia, Fiji, Grenada, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Mali, Papua New Guinea, Russian Federation, Saint Lucia, Sierra Leone, Syria, Tunisia, United Republic of Tanzania, Venezuela and Yugoslavia.

Message from Secretary General

Decolonization was clearly one of the great success stories of the last half-century, and that process must be seen through to its end, the Secretary-General said in a message to the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples - known as the Special Committee of 24 - on the occasion of the opening of the Caribbean Regional Seminar on Decolonization.
He said since the adoption of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples in 1960, more than 80 million people had attained independence, but there were still 17 Non-Self-Governing Territories remaining. The Special Committee of 24 organized seminars like the current one to give the more than two million people who lived in those Territories the chance to make their views known on the unique problems they faced.
The regional seminar would provide a unique opportunity to recommit to the goal of assuring that all peoples could exercise their right of self-determination

Message from Chairman

The Chairman of the Special Committee, JULIAN ROBERT HUNTE, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade of Saint Lucia, said . . .
The Week of Solidarity with Peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories would also be observed during this seminar, he said, to reiterate the international community’s determination to put an end to the anachronism of colonialism consistent with the principles of political equality, the objectives of the United Nations Charter, and the Organizations’ resolutions on decolonization.
It was recognized that the first International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism had not fostered the completion of full self-government for the people of the remaining, mostly small island, Non-Self-Governing Territories.
It was important, however, to emphasize that the process during the 1990s had been advanced through the convening of regional seminars which provided a venue for the exchange of information between the representatives of the Territories, NGOs, Member States, scholars and others, he said.
Since the end of World War II many island jurisdictions had emerged from various forms of colonialism to attain political independence, integration with full political rights within the administering country or free association with another country with the maximum degree of autonomy - three options recognized by Resolution 1541 XV of 1960.
There still remained, however, Non-Self-Governing Territories in the Caribbean and Pacific regions administered by developed countries in sometimes sophisticated models of colonial governance which were often projected - and even perceived in the territories themselves - as self-governing, irrespective of the objective reality. He said the principles of full and absolute political equality must continue as the guiding standard in addressing the self-determination process of the small island territories, if the spectre of “colonies in perpetuity” was to be avoided.
The one lesson from the first Decade was that the wider United Nations system had not been forthcoming in assisting the territories in their development process, with exceptions such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the regional commissions.
Vastly increased coordination within the system was required to meet the challenge, he said. The Special Committee was planning a joint meeting with the Economic and Social Council on methods to ensure that the wider United Nations system implemented its mandate in assisting the territories. The administering Powers also had statutory responsibilities for decolonization. It was his intention to accelerate the ongoing informal dialogue with those powers, but it was also time that their formal cooperation with the Committee was resumed. The resumption of the tripartite dialogue between the Special Committee, the administering Powers and the representatives of the territories would further contribute to the success of the Committee’s work.
The Special Committee regarded this regional seminar as a critical first step in the second International Decade, as it proceeded to devise international strategies to ensure that the sacred right to self-determination - “this basic human right” - was realised in all of the remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories. “Nothing short of this goal should be acceptable,” he said.

USVI Statement

CARLYNE CORBIN, representative of United States Virgin Islands said, the progress of the United Nations in the field of decolonization had been a great success, but the process was far from complete. He stressed the importance of direct contacts between the United Nations and the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories. The decade had begun in the context of the end of the Cold War and ideological rivalries, he said. A non-ideological perspective of the situation of the self-determination had not taken place. There was a view that the people of the Territories had been satisfied with the status quo and were too small to be sustainable states. A sobering assessment of the mandate of the Committee begged the question of the level of commitment of the international community to the process of self-determination.
One successful part of the plan of action had been the conduct of the regional seminars. Reviewing the history of those seminars he said one theme had emerged: the importance of the participation of the United Nations in the final acts of self-determination. The inalienable rights of the peoples of a Territory must be guaranteed by an independent broker. The United Nations should be that broker. The views of the seminars should not be put on the shelf, but rather be used as a blueprint for the future.
During the seminars, the issue of ownership and control of natural resources had also been addressed, and the role of the United Nations system in assisting Non-Self-Governing Territories in their social and economic development had been emphasized, he said. The plan of action for the first decade should be the core for the plan of action for the Second Decade, and a third Decade should be avoided.

Antigua and Barbuda

Sir FRED PHILLIPS, expert from Antigua and Barbuda, speaking on perspectives of free association in the former West Indies Associated States and implications for sustainable contemporary free association models, said the Caribbean area had boasted a Federation from 1958 to 1962 comprising ten territories. After Jamaica became independent, that federation dissolved. Six small territories were anxious to attain some further advance in constitutional status. Montserrat remained a colony of Britain.
The United Kingdom devised the new status of Associated Statehood, taking a leaf out of the book of New Zealand. Under the form of association, the Caribbean territories concerned were to have independence in all their internal affairs, while Her Majesty’s Government would assume responsibility for their defence and external affairs.
There was a question whether territories that still remained dependent genuinely felt that they would have economic stability if they moved toward Associated Statehood. They looked at the other territories and saw economic difficulties they themselves did not have, and assumed that independence and poverty went hand in hand. However, Singapore was an example to the contrary, he said. The countries themselves must remember that it was their inalienable right to be independent. If they became independent, hard times might lie ahead, but the United Nations had to be willing to assist if difficulties arose.
He said, quoting the representative of Trinidad and Tobago in 1964, that an administering power might not be willing or able to discharge the full measure of its responsibility. That fact should not prevent a country otherwise fit and ready for independence from attaining it. If the Organization could not compel an administering power to do its duty, then the organization must in fact take over that duty. The Caribbean Islands could not be told that they were too small or too poor to join the family of nations.
If it was the intention of the Special Committee to continue to urge all dependent territories to seek self-government, the United Nations must be prepared to bring such newly independent countries economic succour if for any reason they found themselves unable to maintain viable economies in their new status. It was not enough to tell such countries that the United Nations itself was in financial trouble and unable to meet its obligations. go to page 5