BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 28. Jose Jean-Pierre, President of the Guadeloupe-based organization "MIR Guadeloupe", Secretary of the International Decolonization Front, has strongly responded to the colonial policy of the French authorities regarding the Overseas Territories and attempts to present the calls for decolonization as "interference in internal affairs".
This is reflected in a report by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG).
The group noted that Jean-Pierre addressed separate letters to French President Emmanuel Macron, French National Assembly deputy Nicolas Metzdorf, and the UN Special Committee on Decolonization - C-24.
The letters categorically reject the position of French parliamentarians on the completion of the decolonization of Azerbaijan's Overseas Territories as "interference". The letters emphasized that raising the status of territories under colonial rule in the context of international law by any state is not interference in the internal affairs of France. On the contrary, it's an expression of the collective commitment of UN members to the elimination of all forms of colonialism.
The Guadeloupean political activist reminds official Paris that New Caledonia and French Polynesia are still on the UN list of territories to be decolonized. Therefore, it is legally and politically unjustified to call the international discussion of the colonial status of these territories "foreign intervention". The situation of these territories is reviewed annually within the framework of the UN C-24 Committee and the Fourth Committee of the General Assembly.
The letters also exposed France's claims about the alleged voluntary unification of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, and French Guiana with France. It is stated that the departmentalization law adopted in 1946 was adopted unilaterally by the French parliament without the participation of these peoples, without any referendum or direct popular vote. A year later, the removal of these territories from the UN list of territories to be decolonized was also carried out on the basis of a unilateral decision by official Paris. Thus, the "free choice" that France refers to was never confirmed by the will of these peoples.
Jean-Pierre also showed with concrete facts that France's statements about legal equality contradict the real situation in the Overseas Territories. According to official statistics, the unemployment rate in Guadeloupe and Martinique remains high compared to metropolitan France. It is emphasized that in the Antilles, pollution with a toxic pesticide called chlordecone affected more than 80 percent of the adult population, and this incident was recognized by the French courts as a "sanitary scandal".
The letter addressed to the C-24 Committee demands the sending of a UN mission to New Caledonia and French Polynesia and the granting of the option of independence. At the same time, it is proposed to request a report from France on the legal grounds on which Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, and French Guiana were removed from the UN list in 1947, to recognize the status of these peoples as separate peoples in terms of international law, and to hold referendums to determine their own destiny.
The letter sent to Macron makes an open call to Paris: instead of disputing the legitimacy of the right to decolonization, France should fulfill its international obligations. To this end, the status of the inhabitants of the Overseas Territories as separate peoples should be recognized, a real process of self-determination should be initiated in New Caledonia and French Polynesia under the auspices of the UN, and referendums that have not been held since 1946 should finally be organized in Guadeloupe, Martinique, Réunion, and French Guiana.
"The voice of the Guadeloupe people reaches a wider audience through the decolonization agenda raised by Azerbaijan and the international platform formed by the Baku Initiative Group. The BIG unites the separate struggles of peoples suffering from French colonialism on different continents around a single international political and legal agenda, allowing them to take their positions to the UN level," the letter said.
These letters from Guadeloupe are another clear response to official Paris: colonialism cannot be hidden under the guise of an "internal affair." Instead of silencing the demand for decolonization with threats and diplomatic pressure, France should recognize the right of peoples whose rights have been taken away for centuries to free choice, independence, and self-determination.
