FOURTH COMMITTEE, CONCLUDING CONSIDERATION OF DECOLONIZATION, APPROVES NINE DRAFT RESOLUTIONS, ONE DECISION, HALF BY RECORDED VOTE

 Moving on to recorded votes, the Committee approved a draft resolution on economic and other activities that affect Non-Self-Governing Territories by 165 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 2 abstentions (France United Kingdom).  By the terms of that text, the Assembly would affirm the value of foreign economic investment undertaken in collaboration with the peoples of the Territories and, among other terms of the text, urge the administering Powers to safeguard and guarantee the right of those to their natural resources and to ensure that no discriminatory working conditions prevailed in the Territories.Also requiring recorded votes were the resolution on information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the Charter of the United Nations — 161 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions (Israel, France, United Kingdom, United States)The remaining two texts requiring recorded votes were on:  dissemination of information on decolonization — 164 in favour to 3 against (Israel, United Kingdom, United States) with 1 abstention (France); and implementation of the Declaration — 164 in favour to 3 against (Israel, United Kingdom, United States), with 2 abstentions (Belgium, France).

The Committee then turned to draft resolution I, on information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the Charter of the United Nations, approving it by a recorded vote of 161 in favour to none against, with 4 abstentions ( France, Israel, United Kingdom, United States).Next, the Committee approved draft resolution II, on economic and other activities which affect the interests of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories, by a recorded vote of 165 in favour to 2 against (Israel, United States), with 2 abstentions (France, United Kingdom).Speaking in explanation of vote after the vote, the representative of Argentina said the draft just adopted was part of General Assembly resolution 1514 and other relevant Assembly resolutions on decolonization.  As a result, the applicability of the text for specific Territories depended on the right to self-determination, applicable to that Territory in particular.  For the exercise of that right, there needed to be an active subject — a people subjected to domination and exploitation by a foreign party.  If that was not the case, there was no right to self-determination.The delegate added that the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas had been illegally occupied by the United Kingdom, which had expelled the population by force and replaced it with its own.  That meant that the issue of self-determination was inapplicable to the Malvinas Islands.  The draft resolution just approved, therefore, was in no way applicable to the Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas.  Any General Assembly resolution on the Malvinas as, well as those approved today had expressly established that, because there was a sovereignty dispute on Malvinas, South Georgias and South Sandwich Islands and the surrounding maritime areas, the way to end that colonial situation was not self-determination, but a negotiated solution to the sovereignty dispute between the parties, the United Kingdom and Argentina.