Alaska and Hawaii Pursue Self-Determination
UNITED NATIONS, GENEVA – Representatives from Alaska and Hawaii re-assert their diplomatic protests against the unlawful annexation of their countries in interventions and panel events during the 32nd session of the Human Rights Council that met from 13 June – 1 July of this year in Geneva, Switzerland. The United States continues to violate their right to self-determination since it misled the General Assembly of the United Nations into removing Alaska and Hawaii from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories under Article 73 of the Charter of the United Nations on 12 December 1959 through an irregular referendum and several other violations. The Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council are taking notice of the illegal removal of Alaska and Hawaii from the list of Non-Self-Governing Territories by placing them in the conclusions and recommendations of their UN Reports with a call to address the violations. The Islamic Republic of Pakistan called upon the United States of America to implement the recommendation to send Alaska and Hawaii and the Dakotas to the United Nations Decolonization Committee of 24 during its 2nd cycle of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in May of 2015. The United States stated it would not equivocate on its human rights obligations during its UPR review, then demonstrated bad faith and rank hypocrisy by refusing to send Alaska, Hawaii and the Dakotas to the United Nations Decolonization Committee for review. The United States continues to equivocate by reducing the international status of Alaska and Hawaii to its domestic law despite that neither it nor any other State can invoke domestic law to settle its international law obligations. Alaska and Hawaii continue to diplomatically protest the illegal occupation by the United States of America.
The Alaska and Hawaii delegations and many NGOs are calling for the re-insertion of the right to self-determination as a permanent Agenda Item of the Human Rights Council. The right to self-determination was removed as a permanent Agenda Item from the former Commission on Human Rights. The General Assembly has called for the right to self-determination to be addressed in an annual resolution adopted by the General Assembly on the Universal Right of Peoples to Self-determination. The violations of the right to self-determination are the root cause of many other serious human rights violations, such as disappearances, crimes against humanity and genocide.
The member states of the United Nations instituted mechanisms to implement Article 73, the Declaration of Non-Self-Governing Territories; this resulted in the United Nations Membership to grow from the original 51 member states in 1945 to the 193 Members, 80 of which utilized UN decolonization procedures, yet Alaska and Hawaii remain an exception.
Ambassador Ronald Barnes of Alaska stated:
“Our peoples in Alaska did not participate or consent to its annexation. The US military was given five US dollars to vote in the 1958 referendum and the American citizens voted. Did French citizens vote in Tunisia, Morocco or Algeria? We cannot recognize an irregular referendum; the United States did not inform us of our international UN status associated with the vote. The United Nations did not monitor the referendum nor did the General Assembly properly examine the false and misleading report of the United States of America. The Human Rights Council must implement the call by the Independent Expert Alfred de Zayas and Pakistan to send Alaska and Hawaii to the UN Decolonization Committee for re-examination and re-enlistment to the list of Non-Self- Governing Territories to hold the US accountable.”
Leon Siu from the Koani Foundation and Ke Aupuni o Hawaii added:
“There has been significant progress in unmasking the circumstances behind the illegal and prolonged U.S. occupation of the Hawaiian Islands. We hope that the Human Rights Council will call for the US to comply with the UN Charter and international law and the principles of peace and justice by taking the necessary steps to implement its international obligations to end its foreign occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.”
George Edwardson, Inupiat elder from Barrow, Alaska added, “Self-determination would mean that we, the people of the land, would be the decision-makers to govern and to protect our caribou, our fisheries and our lands from the ravages of extractive industries. We can preserve our environment, our natural resources and our way of life and our right to subsistence. Our people in Alaska need to be fully informed of the truth of our status” Further, Mr. Edwardson challenged the validity of international treaties and agreements set up by the puppet institutions created by the United States of America, then called for re-enlistment.
Routh Bolomet:
Routh Bolomet is one of the direct heirs and holders of the allodial title (absolute ownership) granted by the Royal Patents as Private Kingdom Land Titles from the Kingdom of Hawaii. Mrs. Bolomet states that, "The United States of America and its UNITED STATES CORPORATION do not have the jurisdictional authority to issue Private Kingdom Land Titles belonging to the subjects of Royal Patents under Hawaiian Kingdom Constitutional Law. It is a clear violation of international law to assign private lands to non-heirs under the laws of foreign occupation. This violates our human rights and is an act of bad faith by the United States of America and its UNITED STATES CORPORATION."
Position of Alaska and Hawaii
The peoples of both Alaska and Hawaii maintain that their countries were never lawfully annexed or otherwise acquired by the United States of America. The United States concealed the facts of history and misled the UN General Assembly, thus, sidestepping its sacred trust obligations in the UN decolonization process. The U.S. conducted improper referenda in Alaska (1958) and Hawaii (1959); in essence “manufacturing consent” and misleading the world into believing the people of Alaska and Hawaii chose to become “federal states” under the domestic laws of the United States.
The peoples of Hawaii are engaged in reinstating the Kingdom of Hawaii as a sovereign independent nation. The peoples of Alaska adopted a resolution unanimously calling for re-enlistment of Alaska to the UN Committee of 24 to begin their decolonization. They both want to restore their original title to their lands without compromising their independence.
