Special Committee on Decolonization

Current members of the UN Special Committee on Decolonization

  Members in 2009

  Observers in 2009

The Special Committee on Decolonization (also known as the U.N. Special Committee of the 24 on Decolonization, the Committee of 24, or simply, the Decolonization Committee) was created in 1961 by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the purpose of monitoring implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and to make recommendations on its application.^[1] The committee is also a successor to the former Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories, with which it was merged in 1963. The full official name of the Special Committee is "Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples".

Hoping to speed the progress of decolonization, the General Assembly had adopted in 1960 the Resolution 1514, also known as the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples" or simply "Declaration on Decolonization". It stated that all people have a right to self-determination and proclaimed that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end.^[2]

Subsequently, in 1990, the General Assembly proclaimed 1990–2000 as the International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism and adopted a concrete Plan of Action to further its principles and relevant International Law on that matter. In 2001, the United Nations proceeded to proclaim the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism.^[3] In 2011, the Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism was declared.

In 1945, the year the United Nations was established, 750 million people – almost a third of the world's population – lived in territories that were non-self-governing, dependent on colonial Powers. Today, fewer than 2 million people live in such territories.^[4]

As of 2016, several of the territories on the list have rejected independence (or any other change of status) through referendums, such as Gibraltar in 2002^[5] and the Falkland Islands in 2013.^[6] Likewise in 2013 the elected Assembly of French Polynesia objected to that territory's inclusion on the list.^[7] There is also controversy surrounding the viability of several of the listed territories as independent nations, such as Pitcairn, which has a population estimated at just 57 in 2015.^[8]

Listed non-self-governing territories

As of 2014, there still remain 17 territories listed on the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories:

Territory
	Capital	Currency	Language	Administering state	Continent	Notes
American Samoa [note 1]	Pago Pago	United States dollar	English	United States	Oceania	[9][note 2]
Anguilla	The Valley	East Caribbean dollar	English	United Kingdom	Americas	[10][11][note 3]
Bermuda	Hamilton	Bermudian dollar	English	United Kingdom	Americas	[11][12]
British Virgin Islands	Road Town	United States dollar [note 4]	English	United Kingdom	Americas	[11][13]
Cayman Islands	George Town [note 5]	Cayman Islands dollar	English	United Kingdom	Americas	[11][14]
Falkland Islands	Stanley	Falkland Pound	English	United Kingdom	Americas	[11][15] [note 6]
French Polynesia [note 7]	Papeete	CFP franc	French	France	Oceania	[16][17]
Gibraltar	Gibraltar	Gibraltar pound	English	United Kingdom	Europe
Guam	Agaña	United States dollar	English	United States	Oceania
Montserrat	Plymouth	East Caribbean dollar	English	United Kingdom	Americas
New Caledonia	Nouméa	CFP franc	French	France	Oceania
Pitcairn [note 8]	Adamstown	New Zealand dollar	English	United Kingdom	Oceania	[11][18]
Saint Helena	Jamestown	Saint Helena pound	English	United Kingdom	Africa	[11][19]
Tokelau	Fakaofo	New Zealand dollar	English	New Zealand	Oceania
Turks and Caicos Islands	Cockburn Town	United States dollar	English	United Kingdom	Americas
United States Virgin Islands	Charlotte Amalie	United States dollar	English	United States	Americas
Western Sahara [note 9]	El Aaiún	Sahrawi peseta	Arabic	Morocco	Africa	[note 10]

Membership

The 17-member Special Committee was expanded to 24 members in 1962, and the size of its membership has varied since.^[20]

As of March 2014, the members are as follows:^[21]

Antigua and Barbuda	Ethiopia	Papua New Guinea	Tanzania
Bolivia	Fiji	Russian Federation	Venezuela
Chile	Grenada	Saint Kitts and Nevis
China	India	Saint Lucia
Congo	Indonesia	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
Côte d'Ivoire	Iran	Sierra Leone
Cuba	Iraq	Syria
Dominica	Mali	East Timor
Ecuador	Nicaragua	Tunisia

The Special Committee also has 14 observers.^[22]

Officers and bureau members

The Chair of the Special Committee for 2016 is Rafael Darío Ramírez Carreño (Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela) . The two Vice Chairs are Rodolfo Reyes Rodriguez (Cuba)and Vandi Chidi Minah (Sierra Leone). The Rapporteur is Bashar Ja'afari of Syria. The Bureau of the Committee comprises these officers.^[23]

See also

• Special Political and Decolonization Committee
• UN list of non-self-governing territories
• Dependent territories

Notes

1. Also known in the form conventional as Territory of American Samoa.
2. Dependency status: unincorporated and unorganized territory of the US; administered by the Office of Insular Affairs, US Department of the Interior.
3. Overseas territory of the United Kingdom.
4. The economy is closely tied to the larger and more populous US Virgin Islands to the west; the US dollar is the legal currency.
5. Also known as on Grand Cayman.
6. The Falkland Islands include the two main islands of East and West Falkland and about 200 small islands.
7. Also known as Overseas Lands of French Polynesia.
8. Also known as Pitcairn, Henderson, Ducie, and Oeno Islands.
9. Territory under de facto Moroccan control. Claimed by SADR.
10. The legal status the territory and the issue of sovereignty unresolved; territory contested by Morocco and Polisario Front (Popular Front for the Liberation of the Saguia el Hamra and Rio de Oro), which in February 1976 formally proclaimed a government-in-exile, the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), based out of refugee camps near Tindouf, Algeria, led by President Mohamed Abdelaziz.

References

1. "the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonisation – Official Website". United Nations. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
2. "History of U.N. Decolonisation Committee – Official U.N. Website". United Nations. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
3. "Historical Documents of the U.N. Decolonisation Committee – Official U.N. Website and Document Archive". United Nations. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
4. "The United Nations and Decolonization". United Nations. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
5. Daly, Emma (2002-11-08). "Gibraltar Rejects Power-Sharing Between Britain and Spain". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
6. correspondent, Caroline WyattDefence; News, B. B. C. "Falklands referendum: Voters choose to remain UK territory". BBC News. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
7. "Tahiti assembly votes against UN decolonisation bid", Radio New Zealand International, 17 May 2013
8. "Pitcairn: Islands & Settlement - Population Statistics in Maps and Charts". www.citypopulation.de. Retrieved 2016-01-03.
9. American Samoa at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
10. Anguilla at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
11. British Overseas Territories
12. Bermuda at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
13. British Virgin Islands at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
14. Cayman Islands at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
15. Falkland Islands at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
16. French Polynesia at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
17. United Nations General Assembly Session 68 Resolution 93. A/RES/68/93 Retrieved 13 July 2014.
18. Pitcairn at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
19. Saint Helena at the CIA World Factbook Retrieved 13 July 2014.
20. "United Nations". Unhchr.ch. Retrieved 2012-02-11.
21. . United Nations http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2014/gacol3259.doc.htm. Retrieved 2014-09-06. Missing or empty |title= (help)
23. http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs//2014/gacol3259.doc.htm; http://www.un.org/Depts/dpi/decolonization/special_committee_bureau.htm

External links

• United Nations official homepage
• Decolonization Committee homepage United Nations