17 May 2013
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| Department of Public Information • News and Media Division • New York |
- Sixty-seventh General Assembly
Plenary - 82nd Meeting (AM)
GENERAL ASSEMBLY ADOPTS TEXTS ON ITEMS RANGING FROM
SELF-DETERMINATION TO PEACE
IN SOUTH ATLANTIC; SUPPORTS EXTENSION OF IMPUNITY COMMISSION IN
GUATEMALA
- The General Assembly, working through its busy agenda, today adopted five resolutions and one decision on a wide range of items, including on the self-determination of French Polynesia and on peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic.
- By the terms of the text on French Polynesia, tabled by Nauru, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, the Assembly requested the Government of France, as the administering Power, to intensify its dialogue with the Non-Self-Governing Territory to facilitate rapid progress towards a fair and effective self-determination process. The Assembly asked the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples — the Special Committee on Decolonization — to consider that matter at its next session and to report to the Assembly at its sixty-eighth session.
- Introducing the text, the representative of Solomon Islands said that French Polynesia was “historically” inscribed by the administering Power on the original United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. However, for decades, the Assembly had not been furnished with information on French Polynesia. Furthermore, a subsequent list published in 1963 curiously omitted it. He was concerned that the de-facto removal of French Polynesia and New Caledonia from United Nations oversight had occurred without adoption of a General Assembly resolution.
- Today’s draft resolution, adopted without a vote, was based on the principle that it was up to the Non-Self Governing Territory of French Polynesia to choose its future destiny, in a just and fair process, he said, adding that “the matter of decolonization remains an unfinished business of the United Nations”.
- Speaking in explanation of position after action, the representative of the Netherlands was among some who disassociated themselves from consensus. He said that, although he supported the principle of the inalienable right to self-determination, the Assembly must hear from the people of French Polynesia before adopting a resolution that determined their future.
- Also acting without a vote, the Assembly adopted a draft resolution on promoting peace and cooperation in the South Atlantic, by which the 193-nation body called on States to cooperate in the promotion of peace and cooperation — objectives established in resolution 41/11 and reiterated in the Montevideo Declaration and the Plan of Action.
- Following that action, the representative of the United Kingdom said his delegation strongly disagreed with certain elements of the Montevideo Declaration, notably the false
