Global perspective Human stories

Assisting decolonization process one of UN’s proudest chapters – Ban Ki-moon

Assisting decolonization process one of UN’s proudest chapters – Ban Ki-moon

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon addresses meeting
Lauding the United Nations’ facilitation of decolonization as one of the “proudest chapters” in the Organization’s history, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the process of hundreds of millions of people worldwide exercising their right to self-determination to continue.

Lauding the United Nations’ facilitation of decolonization as one of the “proudest chapters” in the Organization’s history, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today urged the process of hundreds of millions of people worldwide exercising their right to self-determination to continue.

“As you know better than anyone, this chapter is still being written,” Mr. Ban told this year’s session of the Special Committee on Decolonization in New York.

Compared to 72 Non-Self-Governing Territories on the UN’s decolonization list when the world body was created in 1945, there are currently 16 such territories remaining.

“Until their status is satisfactorily resolved, the ideas of the General Assembly Declaration on Decolonization will remain unfulfilled,” he pointed out.

Last year, after a UN-supervised referendum fell 16 votes short of attaining self-government, it was decided that the territory of Tokelau – three small and isolated atolls in the Pacific Ocean – would remain a territory of New Zealand.

Despite the referendum’s outcome, “the fact that the people of Tokelau had the opportunity to freely express their will with regard to their own future was an important step forward,” the Secretary-General said today.

Calling the territory a “commendable example of what can be achieved when there is political will and close cooperation,” he voiced hope that Tokelau’s example will inspire other Territories to further the decolonization process.

The last Non-Self-Governing Territory that exercised the right to self-determination was East Timor, now known as Timor-Leste, which gained its independence in 2002 and joined the UN that same year.