United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories


The United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories is a list of places that the United Nations General Assembly deems to be "non-self-governing" and subject to the decolonization process. Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter embodies a "Declaration on Non-Self-Governing Territories" which declares that the interests of the occupants of dependent territories are paramount and requires member states of the United Nations in control of non-self-governing territories to submit annual information reports concerning the development of those territories. Since 1946, the General Assembly has maintained a list of non-self governing territories under member states' control. Since its inception, dozens of territories have been removed from the list, typically when they attained independence or internal self-government, while other territories have been added as new administering countries joined the United Nations or the General Assembly reassessed the status of certain territories.

History

The United Nations Charter contains a Declaration Concerning Non-Self-Governing Territories. In Chapter XI of said charter, the "Declaration Regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories", specifically the Article 73 point "e" in the Charter, it states that all member States agree to report to the United Nations, annually, on the development of non-self-governing territories under their control. or by vote of the General Assembly.
The list draws its origins from the period of colonialism and the Charter's concept of non-self-governing territories. As an increasing number of formerly colonized countries became UN members, the General Assembly increasingly asserted its authority to place additional territories on the List and repeatedly declared that only the General Assembly had the authority to authorize a territory's being removed from the list upon attainment of any status other than full independence. For example, when Portugal joined the United Nations it contended that it controlled no non-self-governing territories, claiming that areas such as Angola and Mozambique were an integral part of the Portuguese state, but the General Assembly rejected this position. Similarly, Western Sahara was added in 1963 when it was a Spanish colony. The same can be said about the situation of Namibia, which was seen, due to its former status as a League of Nations mandate territory, as a vestige of German colonial legacy in Africa. A set of criteria for determining whether a territory is to be considered "non-self-governing" was established in General Assembly Resolution 1541 of 1960.
Also in 1960, the General Assembly adopted :s:United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514|Resolution 1514, promulgating the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples", which declared that all remaining non-self-governing territories and trust territories were entitled to self-determination and independence. The following year, the General Assembly established the Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, which reviews the situation in non-self-governing territories each year and reports to the General Assembly.

Resolutions adopted

1946

The list remains controversial for various reasons:

Referendum

One reason for controversy is that the list includes some dependencies that have democratically chosen to maintain their current status, or have had a referendum in which there were not enough votes for a change of status, or in some cases simply had an insufficient number of voters participate.

Gibraltar

is a prime example of residents' preferences to retain the status quo. It is a largely self-governing British territory on the tip of the Iberian Peninsula whose territory is claimed by Spain. It has twice held a referendum to resolve its status. In the first referendum, held in 1967, the choices in the ballot were to retain their current status or to become part of Spain. The status quo was favoured by 12,138 votes to 44. In the second referendum, held in 2002, a proposal for a joint British–Spanish administration of the territory was voted down by 17,900 votes to 187.. In neither case did the United Nations recognise the referendum: the 1967 referendum was declared to be in contravention of previous UN resolutions. The Spanish government does not recognize any right of the current Gibraltar inhabitants to self-determination, on the grounds that they are not the original population of the territory, but residents transferred by the colonial power, the United Kingdom.

Tokelau

The territory of Tokelau divides political opinion in New Zealand. In response to attempts at decolonizing Tokelau, New Zealand journalist Michael Field wrote in 2004: "The UN... is anxious to rid the world of the last remaining vestiges of colonialism by the end of the decade. It has a list of 16 territories around the world, virtually none of which wants to be independent to any degree." Field further notes that Patuki Isaako, who was head of Tokelau's government at the time of a UN seminar on decolonization in 2004, informed the United Nations that his country had no wish to be decolonized, and that Tokelauans had opposed the idea of decolonization ever since the first visit by UN officials in 1976.
In 2006, a UN-supervised referendum on decolonization was held in Tokelau, where 60.07% of voters supported the offer of self-government. However, the terms of the referendum required a two-thirds majority to vote in favor of self-government. A second referendum was held in 2007, in which 64.40% of Tokelauans supported self-government, falling short of the two-thirds majority by 16 votes. This led New Zealand politician and former diplomat John Hayes, on behalf of the National Party, to state that "Tokelau did the right thing to resist pressure from and the United Nations to pursue self-government". In May 2008, the United Nations' Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urged colonial powers "to complete the decolonization process in every one of the remaining 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories". This led the New Zealand Herald to comment that the United Nations was "apparently frustrated by two failed attempts to get Tokelau to vote for independence from New Zealand".

Falkland Islands

In March 2013, the autonomous government of the Falkland Islands organised a referendum as to whether the territory should remain a British Overseas Territory. With a 92% turnout, 99.8% of Falkland Islanders voted to maintain that status; only three islanders favoured changing it.

Viability

In addition, some territories are financially dependent on their administering state.

Completely autonomous dependencies

Another criticism is that a number of the listed territories, such as Bermuda, the Falkland Islands and Gibraltar, consider themselves completely autonomous and self-governing, with the "administering power" retaining limited oversight over matters such as defence and diplomacy. In past years, there were ongoing disputes between some administering powers and the Decolonization Committee over whether territories such as pre-independence Brunei and the West Indies Associated States should still be considered "non-self-governing", particularly in instances where the administering country was prepared to grant full independence whenever the territory requested it. These disputes became moot as those territories eventually received full independence.

Removed under other circumstances

Territories that have achieved a status described by the administering countries as internally self-governing – such as Puerto Rico, the Netherlands Antilles, and the Cook Islands – have been removed from the list by vote of the General Assembly, often under pressure of the administering countries.
Some territories that have been annexed and incorporated into the legal framework of the controlling state are considered by the UN to have been decolonized, since they then no longer constitute "non-self-governing" entities; their populations are assumed to have agreed to merge with the former parent state. However, in 1961, the General Assembly voted to end this treatment for the "overseas provinces" of Portugal such as Angola and Mozambique, which were active foci of United Nations attention until they attained independence in the mid-1970s.
Territories have also been removed for other reasons. In 1972, for example, Hong Kong and Macau were removed from the list at the request of the People's Republic of China, which had just been recognized as holding China's seat at the United Nations due to the PRC's belief that their status should be resolved by bilateral negotiations.

Change of status

On 2 December 1986, New Caledonia, an overseas territory of France, was reinstated on the list of non-self-governing territories, an action to which France objected. Within France it has had the status of a collectivité sui generis, or a one-of-a-kind community, since 1999. Under the 1998 Nouméa Accord, its Territorial Congress has the right to call for a referendum on independence between 2014 and 2018. This referendum was held on 4 November 2018, with independence being rejected.
French Polynesia was also reinstated on the list on 17 May 2013, in somewhat contentious circumstances. Having been re-elected President of French Polynesia in 2011, Oscar Temaru asked for it to be re-inscribed on the list; it had been removed in 1947. During the year 2012, Oscar Temaru engaged in intense lobbying with the micro-states of Oceania, many of which, the Solomon Islands, Nauru and Tuvalu, submitted to the UN General Assembly a draft of resolution to affirm "the inalienable right of the population of French Polynesia to self-determination and independence".
On 5 May 2013, Temaru's Union for Democracy party lost the legislative election to Gaston Flosse's pro-autonomy but anti-independence Tahoera'a Huiraatira party; obtaining only 11 seats against the party of Gaston Flosse, with 38 seats, and the autonomist party A Ti'a Porinetia with 8 seats.
At this stage, the United Nations General Assembly was due to discuss French Polynesia's re-inscription on the list twelve days later, in accordance with a motion tabled by the Solomon Islands, Tuvalu and Nauru. On 16 May, the Assembly of French Polynesia, with its new anti-independence majority, adopted a motion asking the United Nations not to restore the country to the list. On 17 May, despite French Polynesia's opposition, and France's, the country was restored to the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. Temaru was present for the vote, on the final day of his mandate as President. The United Nations affirmed "the inalienable right of the people of French Polynesia to self-determination and independence".
A few hours before the UN review of the resolution, during its first meeting, the new Territorial Assembly adopted by 46 votes to 10 a "resolution" expressing the desire of Polynesians to maintain their autonomy within the French Republic. In spite of this resolution adopted by the parties representing 70% of the Polynesian voters, the UN General Assembly inscribed French Polynesia on the list of the territories to be decolonized during its plenary assembly of 17 May 2013. France did not take part in this session while the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom disassociated themselves from this resolution.

List not complete

Also controversial are the criteria set down in 1960 to 1961 by the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1514, United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1541, Principle 12 of the Annex, and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 1654 which only focused on colonies of the Western world, namely Australia, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, South Africa, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the United States. This list of administering states was not expanded afterwards.
Nevertheless, some of the 111 members who joined the UN after 1960 gained independence from countries not covered by Resolution 1541 and were themselves not classified as "Non-Self-Governing Territories" by the UN. Of these that joined the UN between 1960 and 2008, 11 were independent before 1960 and 71 were included on the list. Twenty new UN countries resulted from breakup of Second World states: six were part of Yugoslavia, two were part of Czechoslovakia, and 12 were part of the Soviet Union. Out of the other nine, seven were colonies or protectorates of the "Western" countries, and one each was a non-self-governing part of Ethiopia and Pakistan. Territories like Tibet and Siberia have never been on the list. Western New Guinea which ceded to Indonesia is also not on the list as well as Sarawak and Sabah which were handed to Malaya during its territorial expansion through the formation of Malaysia in 1963. In 2018, the government of Vanuatu started seeking international support to have West Papua added to the list in 2019.

Current entries

The following 17 territories are currently included on the list.
ContinentNameAdministering stateDomestic legal statusOther claimantPopulationAreaReferendumsSee also
Africa'
Disputed
619,060266,000 km2 No official referendum has been held, but there were attempts.Political status of Western Sahara
Africa United KingdomOverseas Territory5,396310 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of Saint Helena
Europe United KingdomDisputed29,7526 km2 There were referendums in 1967 and in 2002.Status of Gibraltar
North America United KingdomOverseas Territory14,10896 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of Anguilla
North America United KingdomOverseas Territory62,00057 km2 A 1995 Bermudian independence referendum was held. 74% were not in favour of independence.Politics of Bermuda
North America United KingdomOverseas Territory28,103153 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of the British Virgin Islands
North America United KingdomOverseas Territory55,500264 km2 No official referendum has been held.Foreign relations of the Cayman Islands
North America United KingdomOverseas Territory5,000103 km2 No official referendum has been held.Government of Montserrat
North America United KingdomOverseas Territory31,458948 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of the Turks and Caicos Islands
North AmericaUnincorporated organized territory106,405352 km2 A 1993 United States Virgin Islands status referendum was held. The status quo was widely preferred among voters however the result was invalidated due to low turnout.Politics of the United States Virgin Islands
OceaniaOverseas country271,0004,000 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of French Polynesia
OceaniaSui generis collectivity252,00018,575 km2 There was a referendum in 1987 and in 2018. Both were disapproved but the 2018 result was close. A new referendum is scheduled for 6 September 2020.Politics of New Caledonia
Oceania New ZealandTerritory1,41112 km2 There were two referendums on self-determination in Tokelau in 2006 and 2007, however both failed to reach the required 2/3 yes margins.Politics of Tokelau
Oceania United KingdomOverseas Territory5036 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of the Pitcairn Islands
OceaniaUnincorporated unorganized territory55,519200 km2 No official referendum has been held.Politics of American Samoa
OceaniaUnincorporated organized territory159,358540 km2 Three status referendums have been held in 1976 and two 1982, one in January and the other in September, with all of them supporting Commonwealth status.Politics of Guam
South America United KingdomDisputed2,50012,173 km2 2 status referendums have been held in 1986 and 2013, with both voting for continued British sovereignty of the islands.Falkland Islands sovereignty dispute

Notes'''

Former entries

The following territories were originally by as Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territory. The dates show the year of independence or other change in a territory's status which led to their removal from the list, after which information was no longer submitted to the United Nations.

Change in status by administrating state

Joined another state

Independence