Autonomy eludes two million people; Fourth Committee: Special Political and Decolonization.

• Position: 59th General Assembly

More than 2 million people continue to live in some 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories, even as the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism (2001-2010) reached its halfway point. For that reason, the issue of decolonization, along with mine-action assistance, peacekeeping operations and the work of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), topped the Fourth Committee's agenda at the fiftyninth session of the General Assembly.

On decolonization, the Assembly adopted by a recorded vote of 167 to 2, with 4 abstentions, a resolution on the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. By that action, it called upon the administering Powers to cooperate fully with the Special Committee of 24 on decolonization to finalize by the end of 2005 a case-by-case work programme that would enable people of those Territories to exercise their right to selfdetermination, including the option of independence. It was in 1961 that the Assembly established the Special Committee, in accordance with resolution 1654 (XVI), to examine application of the Declaration.

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The question of Western Sahara figured prominently in Committee debate. The United Nations has been seeking a settlement since 1963 on Western Sahara--a territory on the northwest coast of Africa bordering Morocco, Mauritania and Algeria. The Assembly adopted a resolution by 50 to none, with 100 abstentions, by which it expressed the Security Council's support of the peace plan for self-determination as an optimum political solution. However, Morocco gave its "final answer, saying that it will consider the issue only in the context of autonomy of the people of Western Sahara within the sovereignty of Morocco", Committee Chairman Kyaw Tint Swe of Myanmar told the UN Chronicle.

The struggle for self-determination had gone on for too long, Dumisani Shadrack Kumalo of South Africa said, adding that Morocco's response to the peace plan indicated an unwillingness to allow those people their rights.

Michelle Joseph of Saint Lucia, also speaking on behalf of the Caribbean Community, said that the remaining Non-Self-Governing Territories in the region had not yet achieved a full measure of self-government based on a minimum set of standards adopted by the General Assembly. "They represented unfinished business of the United Nations in regard to the inalienable rights of people", she said. Many of the obstacles towards self-government trace back to a lack of information flowing to...