Could The United Nations Do More To Decolonize Puerto Rico?

There is no doubt that if the United Nations (UN) really wanted to decolonize Puerto Rico, it would have done so in the first decade after 1960. That was the year that the UN declared colonialism a crime against humanity, because it is a threat to world peace. So, if the main purpose of the UN is to foster and maintain world peace, 45 years is too much time to have allowed this to drag on!

Thus far, the UN has issued 34 resolutions asking for the United States to immediately decolonize Puerto Rico. The US government has ignored them all. That should tell the UN that the United States government is above international law. That it doesn’t care what the majority of the international community thinks. That it does not believe in the rule of law. That it does not care about human rights. And that the US government does not believe in democracy, or about justice for all!

One would think that the UN would be trying to think of ways to increase the pressure to force the US government to comply with international law. What could the UN do?

Let’s start with the obvious. When the UN realized that in 1952 Puerto Rico had not achieved self-government like the United States government said it did in order to get Puerto Rico off the UN’s list of colonies, it should have put Puerto Rico back on the list. How difficult could that have been? Today, 62 years later, Puerto Rico is still not on the UN’s list of colonies, although the UN holds annual hearings to decolonize her, is the oldest colony in the world, and is the most populated!

Do you know that the UN has its own radio and television stations? One would have assumed that the UN would have been broadcasting the annual Puerto Rico decolonization hearings from the very beginning. Guess what? It hasn’t. Why not? Is it afraid of the United States government? Either colonialism is a crime against humanity, or it is not. How could the UN have allowed the criminal to threaten world peace for 45 years? Please write your letter letting the UN know that you want the 2016 Puerto Rico decolonization hearing broadcast live!

Another thing the UN could do is proclaim October 12 (Columbus Day) International World Decolonization Day. On this day, The UN would inform the world of the 18 existing colonies, and the countries which are criminals according to international law for refusing to decolonize them. Send your letters to the UN to make this happen too!

Did you know that the morning session of the Monday, June 22, 2015 Puerto Rico decolonization hearing is not available on the UN’s WEBCAST? In this session, 28 petitioners addressed the UN’s Decolonization Committee. What happened? Certainly, the UN could provide us with this video so that those of us interested in this subject could be kept informed.

And what happened to the UN’s official textual account of the entire June 22, 2015 Puerto Rico Decolonization Hearing, with a summary of what each petitioner said? Nobody knows, but it is still not published by the UN. The UN can certainly make sure that these documents are timely available to the public.

I think the UN needs to get more serious about its role in world decolonization. If the UN continues with business as usual, we will run out of decades before it ever gets done!

Sec. Gen. Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Headquarters
New York, NY 10017
C-24 President Xavier Lasso Mendoza