Page:Declaration on granting independence.djvu/3

46 independence which would best satisfy their aspirations.

On the same day, 28 November, Cambodia, on behalf of 26 Asian and African countries, introduced a draft resolution which was eventually sponsored by 43 Asian and African states. The Cambodian representative said that the sponsors of the draft had tried to find formulae and solutions which could be acceptable to the greatest possible number of delegations, if not to all Members of the Assembly. They therefore appealed to all delegations to study the text carefully and open-mindedly, so that a period of humanity's history which should have been left behind—that is, the exploitation of peoples by other peoples and the domination of countries by other countries—could be forgotten.

By the operative part of the Asian-African draft resolution, the General Assembly—after solemnly proclaiming the "necessity of bringing to a speedy and unconditional end colonialism in all its forms and manifestations"—would declare that:

"1. The subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation constitutes a denial of fundamental human rights, is contrary to the Charter of the United Nations and is an impediment to the promotion of world peace and co-operation.

"2. All peoples have the right of self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.

"3. Inadequacy of political, economic, social or educational preparedness should never serve as a pretext for delaying independence.

"4. All armed action or repressive measures of all kinds directed against dependent peoples shall cease in order to enable them to exercise peacefully and freely their right to complete independence, and the integrity of their national territory shall be respected.

"5. Immediate steps shall be taken, in Trust and Non-Self-Governing Territories or all other territories which have not yet attained independence, to transfer all powers to the peoples of those Territories, without any conditions or reservations, in accordance with their freely expressed will and desire, without any distinction as to race, creed or colour, in order to enable them to enjoy complete independence and freedom.

"6. Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.

"7. All States shall observe faithfully and strictly the provisions of the Charter of the United Nations,the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and this Declaration on the basis of equality,non-interference in the internal affairs of all states, and respect for the sovereign rights of all peoples and their territorial integrity."

The 43 sponsors of the draft were as follows: Afghanistan, Burma, Cambodia, Cameroun, Central African Republic, Ceylon, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Congo (Leopoldville), Cyprus, Dahomey, Ethiopia, Federation of Malaya, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Ivory Coast, Jordan, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Nepal, Niger, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sudan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Republic and Upper Volta.

Representatives of several of the sponsoring countries of the 43-power draft welcomed the initiative taken by the USSR in bringing the question of colonialism before the General Assembly; the Asian-African states, they said, had long been concerned with that problem.

Some of them, including Libya, Tunisia and the United Arab Republic, noted the similarity between the two declarations and explained their reasons for introducing their own draft. The representative of Tunisia, for example, said that, while decolonization was a problem which concerned the whole world, the former colonized countries had the sacred duty as non-aligned countries to be "in the van of this combat." He stressed that the sponsors did not want the colonialism question to become an ideological struggle "within the framework of the one in which East and West vie against each other." The representative of the United Arab Republic felt that there was no essential difference between the two draft declarations, both of which, he said, had as their objective the "immediate eradication of colonialism."

Many representatives of Asian-African Members referred to the Bandung Conference in 1955, where countries of Asia and Africa had initiated a number of fundamental principles which had become the cornerstone of their policy towards the colonial countries and peoples and which had been re-emphasized at the conferences of African states at Accra in 1958, at Monrovia in 1959 and at Addis Ababa in 1960. The draft declaration they were now submitting was the culmination of those principles, they stressed.

There was no doubt, said many of these