A View of the Metropole

• Author: Carlyle Corbin
• Pages: 253-268

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- A VIEW OF THE METROPOLE -

A View of the Metropole

INTRODUCTION

The promotion by the metropolitan powers of the advancement of

democratic governance in the non-self-governing territories under their

administration can most readily be assessed through the prism of the

international legal mandate for the development of a full measure of

self-government. This mandate is contained in the United Nations

(UN) Charter, specifically Article 73(b), which sets forth the obligation

of the administering powers to promote full self-government in the

context of a legitimate act of self-determination:

Members of the United Nations which have or assume responsibilities

for the administration of territories whose peoples have not attained

a full measure of self-government recognise that the interests of the

inhabitants of these territories is paramount and accept as a sacred

trust the obligation to promote to the utmos t … the well-being of

the inhabitants of these territories and to this end:

(b) to develop self-government, to take due account of the

political aspirations of the peoples, and to assist them in the

progressive development of their free political institutions

according to the particular circumstances of each territory

and its peoples and their varying stages of advancement.

Given the absence of the implementation of the mandate by those

countries which administer territories, the period of self-determination

cannot be considered concluded, as several administering powers have

argued, but has rather taken on a new dimension with respect to the

complexities of the decolonisation of territories which are small islands,

and which face the many challenges associated with small size, economies

of scale, distance from external markets, geographic remoteness and

CARLYLE CORBIN

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- GOVERNANCE IN THE NON-INDEPENDENT CARIBBEAN -

other factors common to small island developing countries. These factors

are routinely recognised in resolutions of the UN General Assembly,

and of the Economic and Social Council, on the political, socio-

economic and constitutional advancement of the small island territories.

Added to these issues is the limited access to the international system

of non-independent countries whose economic sustainability is now

tied to their ability to engage with increasingly globalised structures

and institutions.

COMPOSITION OF THE NON-INDEPENDENT CARIBBEAN

Since World War II, the UN has been successful in fostering the

decolonisation of over 80 territories that have achieved a full measure

of self-government as defined by international principles (UN, 1990,

4). The 16 remaining non-self-governing territories formally listed with

the UN include the Atlantic/Caribbean territories of Bermuda, the

Turks and Caicos Islands, the Cayman Islands, Montserrat, Anguilla

and the British Virgin Islands administered by the United Kingdom

(UK), and the United States Virgin Islands under the jurisdiction of

the United States (US). Puerto Rico is one of a number of territories

which was previously listed with the UN, but which had been removed

from the UN list prior to international adoption of the criteria for self-

government, as contained in Resolution 1541 of 1960. This criterion

defined the three political alternatives of independence, free association

with an independent state or integration into an independent state as

the options which provide for the minimum standards for political

equality.

Any attempt by the UN to relist territories such as Puerto Rico,

which had been previously removed from the UN, list would amount

to a highly politicised exercise, and has only been achieved once for a

small island territory, in the case of New Caledonia under the

administration of France. In the absence of an internationally agreed

procedure – or any proposals to this effect – the possibility of a review

of the status of these territories vis-á-vis the modern definition of a full

measure of self-government remains problematic, and a number of

territories such as Puerto Rico, French Polynesia, West Papua and others

remain in the dependency periphery. The democratic deficiencies

inherent in the political status of these territories remain outside the