The United Nations has closely been identified with the decolonization movement that gained momentum in the post second world war era; and was a founding objective of the UN. There are theorists who say that the US agreed to intervene in the Second World War only after Britain agreed to the decolonization process. Not withstanding the back-door diplomatic negotiations and de facto understanding, the pursuit for decolonization clearly gained momentum in the international arena when on December 14, 1960 the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples through Resolution 1514.
Reaffirming their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and conscious of the need for the creation of conditions of stability and well being; and recognizing the passionate yearning for freedom in all peoples and aware of the increasing conflicts resulting from the denial of or impediments in the way of the freedom of such peoples, the General Assembly in the first point of the declaration stated
“The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.” In point 2, the GA further recognized “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Five decades since Resolution 1514, the decolonization process is albeit an unfinished one. Today, there are still 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories, in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific; and not to forget the unrepresented peoples and the various indigenous political communities around the world, which don’t fit into any of these recognized categories because the UN remains reluctant to accepting indigenous peoples as peoples. Indigenous peoples therefore still find themselves entrapped in states that they neither consented nor agreed to be a part of. And it is the violence of these states that prevent the celebration of indigenous cultures and the freedom of indigenous peoples to exercise the right to self-determination, which is the founding principle which gives rise to the concept of sovereignty.
The United Nations and the international community therefore have a responsibility to bring about a speedy, successful and sustainable solution for the total eradication of colonialism. And yet because the United Nations is fundamentally a Union representing State interest and not nations, it lacks political will in implementing the decolonization process. The implications of Resolution 1514 means a number of countries would need to redraw its state boundaries. The issue of state territory has always been a difficult issue for the UN, and because it centrally has been unable to exist in the absence of state powers, the question of state legitimacy has been one of the leading causes of the world’s conflict. It is now recognized that it is the denial of the right to self-determination, which leads to political conflict.
Tragically, because of the non-implementation of the UN General Assembly Resolution 1514, the independence of some states has only meant the further political subjugation of some nations and peoples.
