Resolution on the United Nations International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism
Brussels 1999
Whereas the UN International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism is finishing without any remarkable results, leaving the Secretary-General’s target of “no colonies by year 2000” unachieved,
The Liberal International Congress:
Expresses its commitment to the cause of self-determination for all remaining colonial countries.
Calls upon the metropolitan powers to grant their remaining dependent territories the right to achieve their political emancipation in the way and at the time democratically chosen by their peoples.
Express its concern about the ongoing military occupation of the Spanish and Portuguese dependent territories of the Western Sahara and Eastern Timor, respectively, and calls for the withdrawal of the Moroccan and Indonesian armies and for a peaceful settlement of the conflicts based on the Sahrawi and Eastern Timorese peoples will.
Calls upon the international community to respect and endorse the jurisprudence created by the International Court of Justice in The Hague on the case of the Western Sahara, by which the colonial populations right to self-determination prevails on any foreign claim by a third party over an inhabited dependent territory.
Expresses its concern on the continuation of foreign territorial claims on several dependent territories; calls upon the respective metropolitan powers to defend their colonial populations and their territories integrity until they can decide themselves on their own future; and calls upon the claimant countries to recognise the right of the relevant territories; populations to have a democratic say on their future political status, especially on the cases of Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands.
Expresses its concern on the future of Hong Kong after the territory was decolonised in 1997 by integrating it into the Peopleís Republic of China without prior consultation to the people, and calls upon the Portuguese Republic to fully secure that China will respect the human and democratic rights of the citizens of Macao once the territory is annexed in 1999, and to grant all Macao citizens the Portuguese nationality.
Expresses its satisfaction on the way the United Kingdom managed the political process in Bermuda and welcomes the British commitment to accept the Bermudan peoples democratically expressed decision; and calls for similar referenda to be held in all remaining British dependent territories. The Bermudan case exemplifies the fact that continuation of the colonial status under an acceptable, relationship with the metropolitan power can also be an option if so wished by the people.
