Decolonization committee opens 1990 session.

• Position: United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization

The Special Committee on decolonization, at its first meeting of the year on 22 january, elected officials for 1990 and approved its work programme. At the meeting, SecretaryGeneral javier Perez de Cuellar paid tribute to the Committee's role in bringing one of the remaining 19 Non-Self-Governing TerritoriesNamibia-to the final stage leading to independence.

He said the Committee's work this year would be particularly important because of the observance of the thirtieth anniversary of the 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. Since 1962, some 45 dependent Territories had exercised their right to self-determination; only 19 Non-Self-Governing Territories remained on the Committee's list.

Mr. Perez de Cuellar described the question of Western Sahara as a major Committee concern.

A number of Caribbean and Pacific island territories were faced with unique problems arising from size, population, geographical isolation and limited economic development, he went on. The Committee had initiated a number of procedures, such as the...