ONESXM: Decolonization is an international responsibility, not France’s internal affair

GREAT BAY--The ONESXM Association has rejected claims that international support for the decolonization and self-determination of peoples under French administration automatically constitutes interference in the internal affairs of the Republic of France.

The Association was responding to a letter addressed to French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Jean-Noël Barrot by National Assembly members Nicolas Metzdorf, Moerani Frébault and Nicole Sanquer.

The parliamentarians reportedly accused Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev of interfering in France’s internal affairs through statements concerning French-administered territories and called for stronger action against Azerbaijan.

ONESXM maintains that colonialism, decolonization and the right of peoples to determine their political future are not exclusively domestic matters belonging to an administering power. These issues are governed by international law and have formed part of the formal agenda of the United Nations since its establishment.

Article 1 of the United Nations Charter identifies respect for the equal rights and self-determination of peoples as one of the organization’s central purposes. The Charter also defines the responsibilities of states administering non-self-governing territories as a sacred trust, under which the interests of the inhabitants must remain paramount.

In 1960, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 1514, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. The declaration called for an end to colonial domination and affirmed the right of peoples to freely determine their political status and pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

New Caledonia and French Polynesia remain on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. ONESXM said their political futures therefore cannot reasonably be treated as matters in which only France has a legitimate voice.

The United Nations, international institutions, independent states and civil-society organizations all have legitimate roles in discussing and supporting lawful decolonization processes.

The Association also stressed that there is a clear distinction between unlawful coercive action against another state and peaceful international advocacy for human rights, decolonization and self-determination.

According to ONESXM, national sovereignty cannot be used to prevent international scrutiny of colonial relationships that remain subject to international obligations.

France cannot describe these territories as purely internal matters when politically convenient, while also appearing before United Nations bodies responsible for decolonization to defend its administration of those same territories, the Association stated.

ONESXM further argued that formal incorporation into the French state does not, by itself, establish that colonialism has ended. Legal equality also does not automatically guarantee equal access to political power, land, economic opportunity, healthcare, education, housing or cultural protection.

The lived conditions of overseas peoples must therefore be assessed separately from the constitutional classifications assigned by the administering power.

ONESXM recognized the work of the Baku Initiative Group and other organizations that continue to bring unresolved decolonization matters before the international community.

The Association said attempts to dismiss this work as foreign interference do not address the concerns raised by colonized and formerly colonized peoples.

The central question is not whether France is uncomfortable with international attention, but whether the peoples concerned have freely and genuinely determined their political future without colonial pressure, economic dependency, administrative control or restrictions imposed by the administering state.

ONESXM said it has no confidence in colonial systems as a route to freedom and maintains that the liberation of colonized peoples must come through independence and the full exercise of self-determination.

The political future of peoples under French administration does not belong to the Republic of France. It belongs to the people themselves.

ONESXM continues to call on St. Martin’s leaders to organize a referendum allowing the people to vote yes or no on independence.

"Decolonization is not France’s internal affair. It is an unfinished international responsibility."

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