1. Ambassador Martinez’s comprehensive account of the treatment of Belize’s quest for self-determination in the United Nations lays the basis for drawing certain conclusions on the significance of the resolutions on the question of Belize, and of the admission of Belize as a Member State of the United Nations.

2. a. The United Nations is empowered by its Charter to monitor the progress towards self-determination, and finally decolonization of non-self-governing territories. By virtue of resolution 1514 “Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Territories and Peoples”, members of the UN declared that “all peoples have the right to self-determination….”, but added that this right should be exercised within the limits of existing colonial boundaries. Paragraph 6 states, “[a]ny attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations.” The principle of “self-determination within the limits of existing colonial boundaries” was the cornerstone of United Nations decolonization policy that developed in the 1960s and 1970s by which the world community sought to liberate peoples in dependent territories within a multilateral legal framework.

b. The General Assembly of the UN (as well as the Committee of 24 and the Fourth Committee) was the main internationally recognised forum to which dependent states like Belize resorted to fulfill their aspirations of self-determination and independence with territorial integrity. The apogee of this process was eventual recognition by and admission to the UN of newly independent states. It is within this context that the resolutions referred to by Ambassador Martinez must be understood.

3. It is plain that the multiple resolutions of the General Assembly on the question of Belize assume and affirm its territorial integrity, intact and inviolable. That is to say, it is the position of the international community that the territory of Belize encompasses “all” of the territory that was administered by the United Kingdom in Belize before Belize attained independence.1 To reiterate emphatically what Ambassador Martinez has stated: “The fact that the Member States of the United Nations voted for the resolutions, having heard the positions of the two sides presented in some detail, can hardly be seen as other than recognition that the territorial integrity of Belize embraces its pre-independence borders, “intact” and “inviolable”.”

4. The resolution admitting Belize to membership in the United Nations, on its face, no more defines its territory than has any other resolution of the United Nations admitting any other Member. Admission of a State does not certify the borders of the admitted State, whether they are uncontested or contested. Of course, the premise of the resolution admitting Belize is that – contrary to the position of Guatemala – Belize is a State, admitted because it is peace-loving and accepts the obligations of the Charter and, in the judgment of the Organization, is “able and willing to carry out these obligations”.2 But, in this case, there is an exceptional added element of recognition of the borders of the State so admitted. The multiple resolutions of the United Nations, in referring to “all the territory” and to the “territorial integrity” of Belize within borders “inviolable” and “intact”, do appear to define or recognize those borders. The resolutions indicate that the General Assembly, in implementing its authority enunciated in Resolution 1514 (XV), has promoted the self-determination and independence of a colonial territory within the whole of the colonial borders of that territory.

5. It is a general principle of international law relating to the succession of states that a boundary having the status of an international frontier at the time of decolonization shall be maintained. The ICJ reaffirmed this principle in the Burkino Faso/Mali judgement. On September 21, 1981, the people of Belize achieved Independence in accordance with the fundamental principle of the UN’s decolonization efforts – self-determination within existing colonial boundaries. They succeeded the United Kingdom and thus became sovereign over the territory of Belize previously administered by the UK, the boundaries of which had hitherto been recognized as an international frontier by the General Assembly of the UN in its resolutions on the question of Belize and by the OAS in its endorsement of UN resolution 35/20. The international community in admitting Belize to membership of the United Nations thus affirmed the succession of this newly independent State with its pre-existing international frontiers.

Thank you.

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