The United Nations has a Special Committee on Decolonization which annually reviews the UN’s list of Non-Self-Governing Territories. While Puerto Rico is no longer on that list, the committee has agreed to hear 68 petitioners on the subject of Puerto Rico this coming Monday, June 16.
In what has become an annual ritual, petitioners usually call for Puerto Rico to either become an independent country or a state of the United States.
Independence
Organizations such as the Socialist Worker’s Party, Estado Nacional Soberano de Borinken, and the Puerto Rican Independence Party usually call either for the International Court of Justice to issue an advisory opinion on the status of the island or for the United States to continue the task of decolonization. Sometimes these speakers call on the international community to support independence for Puerto Rico or for the United States to “leave Puerto Rico.”
In addition, nations including Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Syria, and Azerbaijan often call for independence for Puerto Rico. Speakers at the U.N. from these countries sometimes call upon the United States to expedite a process of self-determination for Puerto Rico leading to separate sovereignty. These representatives call on other U.N. member nations to support independence for Puerto Rico.
Puerto Rican Governor Jenniffer Gonzalez-Colon addressed these nations in 2023, when she was serving as Resident Commissioner to the U.S. Congress. As she explained:
“It is no surprise that Cuba, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Russia, Syria, and Venezuela, who are amongst the worst human rights violators and anti-democratic regimes in the world, are once again calling for Puerto Rico’s independence in an attempt to advance their anti-American agenda and grow their influence in the region. The people of Puerto Rico strongly reject this attempt. For 106 years, Puerto Ricans have been proud American citizens, participated in the U.S. Armed Forces in record numbers, and our Island has been home to important United States military outposts across the Western Hemisphere.”
Statehood
Increasingly in recent years, representatives of organizations favoring statehood as well as the government of Puerto Rico remind the Special Committee that statehood is another viable form of decolonization. These speakers often call on Congress to respect the will of the voters of Puerto Rico and admit the Island as a state.
These speakers sometimes call on the Special Committee to make resolutions, raise awareness, or otherwise influence the U.S. Congress to resolve Puerto Rico’s political status.
General concerns
Some speakers do not call for either statehood or nationhood, but speak instead on issues such as the environment, gender violence, and other injustices associated with Puerto Rico’s continuing colonial relationship with the United States.
Response from the United States
Since the 1950’s, the United States has consistently taken the position that the relationship between Puerto Rico and the federal government is an internal matter, and not under the purview of the United Nations. There is also a related sentiment that the situation is good enough for both the U.S. and Puerto Rico, although there has been increased recognition over the years of the unfinished business of American democracy.
At the United Nations and Around the World
The United States has repeatedly insisted that Puerto Rico’s political status is an internal matter for the United States and Puerto Rico to determine, while the Special Committee on Decolonization has brought the subject to the world in its push for Puerto Rico independence. Yet Puerto Rico’s plebiscites show a strong preference for statehood, not independence. At the heart of this issue lies the reality that U.S. citizenship, which is accessible to Puerto Ricans today, would be vulnerable under independence, and as President Obama’s 2011 Presidential Task Force on Puerto Rico’s Status made clear, “[a]ny status option that could conceivably result in the loss of U.S. citizenship by current U.S. citizen residents of Puerto Rico would, it seems, be viewed with hostility by the vast majority of Puerto Ricans.”
The United Nations General Assembly has not taken any of the committee’s resolutions up officially, despite the vote’s annual occurrence:
- 2024: Cuba, Russia, Syria Again Urge Puerto Rican Independence at U.N. Meeting
- 2023: Cuba, Iran, Venezuela Call for Puerto Rico Independence
- 2022: U.N. Again Considers Next Step for Puerto Rico
- 2019: UN Decolonization Plans Report on Puerto Rico
- 2016: United Nations Again Calls on the US to Expedite a Self-Determination Process for Puerto Rico
- 2015: United Nations Special Committee Directs U.S. to Provide Self Determination to Puerto Rico
- 2014: Relationship of the UN Decolonization Committee to Puerto Rico’s Status Issue
- 2013: UN Committee Notes Plebiscite Results, Calls for Nationhood or Statehood Action
- 2012: UN Meeting about Puerto Rico Again
