As the NAM chairman for the next three years, Iran gets to present policy statements in the name of the 120-state organization. It is not clear what coordination Iran conducts with the other 119 members before it speaks out.
Last week, Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Mohammad Khazaee, read an official NAM position paper to the UN Decolonization Committee.
Khazaee noted that there are 16 “non-self-governing” territories or colonies scattered around the world that come under the purview of the Decolonization Committee. He said, “It is imperative for the United Nations to fulfill its responsibilities and to speed up the process of decolonization toward the complete elimination of colonialism.”
Khazaee did not cite any of those remaining 16 colonies by name. The only territory he named was Puerto Rico. He said NAM “reaffirms the right of the people of Puerto Rico to self-determination and independence.”
He failed to point out that Puerto Rico, which is part of the United States but not a state, has the right of “self-determination and independence,” and is the only part of the United States to have that right. In referendums held on whether to continue Puerto Rico’s current ”free association” status or to go for statehood or independence, Puerto Ricans backing independence totaled 0.6 percent in 1967, 4.4 percent in 1993 and 2.5 percent in 1998.
Khazaee also failed to note that the United Nations does not consider Puerto Rico to be a colony. It dropped Puerto Rico from its colony list in 1952 when the Puerto Rican public voted for its current status as part of the United States. The UN also dropped Alaska and Hawaii from that list in 1959 after they voted for statehood.
The 16 colonies still listed by the UN are mostly islands, such as Bermuda, which is internally self-governing and does not seek independence, leaving defense and foreign policy to Great Britain. It also includes the British colony of Pitcairn Island in the Pacific, which has a population of only 67 people, almost all descended from the mutineers on the British warship Bounty and their Polynesian wives.
