2025 Session,
Special Decolonization Committee Approves 3 Drafts Aimed at Enhancing Information Dissemination, Facilitating Visiting Missions to Non-Self-Governing Territories
The Special Committee on Decolonization opened the substantive portion of its 2025 session today and approved three draft resolutions relating to territories whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government.
The 29-member Special Committee — formally known as the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples — annually reviews the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, as defined in Chapter XI of the Charter of the United Nations, to which the Declaration is applicable and hears statements from their representatives.
Acting without a vote on all three texts, the Special Committee approved its annual draft resolution “Dissemination of information on decolonization” (document A/AC.109/2025/L.3), by which the General Assembly would request the Secretary-General to further enhance the information provided on the United Nations decolonization website. It would also ask the Department of Global Communications to continue its efforts to update web-based information on the assistance programmes available to the Non-Self-Governing Territories.
By the second resolution, “Information from Non‑Self‑Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73(e) of the Charter of the United Nations” (document A/AC.109/2025/L.4), the Assembly would ask the administering Powers to respect their obligations under the Charter and continue to transmit or regularly to the UN Secretary-General information relating to the economic, social and educational conditions in the Territories.
The third text, “Question of sending visiting and special missions to Territories” (document A/AC.109/2025/L.5), would have the Assembly stress the need to dispatch periodic visiting missions to Non-Self-Governing Territories to facilitate the full, speedy and effective implementation of the Declaration. It would also call upon the administering Powers to cooperate with the United Nations, if they have not yet done so, or to continue to cooperate by facilitating UN visiting missions to the Territories under their administration.
Throughout the day, the Special Committee examined the questions concerning Tokelau, American Samoa, Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, French Polynesia, Montserrat, New Caledonia, Pitcairn, Saint Helena, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the United States Virgin Islands and held hearings for some. Petitioners and officials from various Territories delivered impassioned statements. While some highlighted constructive relationships, others called out administering Powers for their failure to carry out their obligations under the UN Charter and relevant UN resolutions.
Question of French Polynesia
“Our actions are not just drops in the ocean. Our actions are the ocean,” underscored Mareva Kitalong, delegate for International, European and Pacific Affairs of French Polynesia, who pointed out that about 40 per cent of France’s exclusive economic zone is in French Polynesia. Its people’s “sovereign effectiveness” over the strategic resources of its maritime areas must be guaranteed. She requested that French Polynesia host the decolonization regional seminar in 2027. Conveying young peoples’ worry about the lack of progress in self-determination, she stressed: “Development and decolonization of French Polynesia go hand in hand.”
France’s representative said French Polynesia enjoys a very large degree of autonomy and holds jurisdiction over a broad range of matters, including health, education, work and culture. Moreover, Polynesians, as full French citizens, enjoy the same rights and freedoms as all other French nationals. French Polynesia’s powers are enhanced by France’s economic and financial support; financial transfers to Polynesia amount to nearly €2 billion each year. Noting their constant dialogue, he said “there is no process between the French State and the Polynesian Territory that provides a role for the United Nations”.
Richard Tuheiava of the Tāvini Huiraʻatira, a pro-sovereignty political party in French Polynesia, noting the administering Power’s refusal to officially recognize the role of the UN, stressed: “This stance is a clear violation of the right to self-determination of the Polynesian people.” He urged the Committee to be more proactive on the question of French Polynesia.
Question of the British Virgin Islands
Natalio D. Wheatley, Premier of the British Virgin Islands, highlighting a key finding of the 2023 UN visiting mission, said the Territory “is ready for a change of political status”. His Government will act on the mission’s recommendations by establishing a decolonization commission and prioritizing a referendum on political status. Voicing hope that the United Kingdom “will do the right thing”, he said: “We will press forward with urgency and haste with the mission of helping to decolonize the Caribbean region.”
The representative of Antigua and Barbuda, a member of the delegation to the last visiting Mission to the British Virgin Islands, stressed that, despite having demonstrated its capacity for self-rule and management of its economy, the Territory “remains shackled and not free to make the ultimate decisions concerning its political aspirations”.
A petitioner for the British Virgin Islands called on the UN to support an education programme on self-determination in the Territory that will not only provide accurate information about political status options, but also address the “psychological dimension” of colonialism — when the colonized people have been persuaded that “they are incapable of ruling themselves”.
