Last Updated on Thursday, 28 June 2012 20:28 Written by News Release Thursday, 28 June 2012 13:19
Guam News - Guam News
Guam - The Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice has issued the following news release with reference to a statement they made before a United Nations Special Committee:
READ the release from the Guhan Coalition in FULL below:
Statement of the Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice to the United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration of the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (Special Committee on Decolonization or C-24) By Julian Aguon, Esq. in New York on June 20, 2012
On June 20, 2012 - Julian Aguon, Esq., provided testimony on behalf of Guahan Coalition for Peace and Justice ("Coalition") before the C-24 Special Committee on Decolonization ("Committee") at the United Nations in New York. As part of the Coalition's mission to produce scholarship and advocacy in furtherance of Guam's decolonization efforts, Attorney Aguon provided the Committee an appraisal of self-determination under international law.
Aguon traced the evolution of the self-determination right under international law, speaking to the twin issues of the content of the self-determination right as well as the issue of whom constitutes the appropriate electorate in any future political status plebiscite in Guam. Citing and discussing various developments in the corpus of international law on self-determination, Aguon made the case that Guam's statutory scheme, including its conception of who qualifies as a "Native Inhabitant of Guam," does not offend international law, including its general prohibition on racial discrimination.
Aguon reported "though international law provides certain instructions on this matter, of late there has been an attempt in Guam . . . to distort the 'self' in self-determination, a situation that, if left unchecked, threatens to further confound the all-important implementation of the decolonization declaration in this Third Decade [for the Eradication of Colonialism]."
Aguon urged the Committee to enlist the assistance of the U.N. Sixth (Legal) Committee to produce a paper in order to address such important international law issues, which some commentators, Aguon noted, seek to inaccurately racialize and so prejudge.
Guahan Coalition for Peace & Justice
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