United Nations Committee on Decolonization

The Special Committee on Decolonization (its full official title being the Special Committee on the Situation with regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples; also known as the U.N. Special Committee of the 24 on Decolonization, the Committee of 24, or simply, the Decolonization Committee) was created in 1961 by the General Assembly of the United Nations with the purpose of monitoring implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples and to make recommendations on its application. The committee is also a successor to the former Committee on Information from Non-Self-Governing Territories, with which it was merged in 1963. The full official name of the Special Committee is "Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples".

Hoping to speed the progress of decolonization, the General Assembly had adopted in 1960 the , also known as the "Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples" or simply "Declaration on Decolonization". It stated that all people have a right to self-determination and proclaimed that colonialism should be brought to a speedy and unconditional end.

Subsequently, in 1990, the General Assembly proclaimed 1990–2000 as the International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism and adopted a concrete Plan of Action to further its principles and relevant International Law on that matter. In 2001, the United Nations proceeded to proclaim the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism. In 2011 - the International Year for People of African Descent - the 2011-2020 Third International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism was declared.

In 1945, the year the United Nations was established, 750 million people – almost a third of the world's population – lived in territories that were non-self-governing, dependent on colonial Powers. Today, fewer than 2 million people live in such territories.

As of 2016, several of the territories on the list have rejected independence (or any other change of status) through referendums, such as Gibraltar in 2002 and the Falkland Islands in 2013. Likewise in 2013 the elected Assembly of French Polynesia objected to that territory's inclusion on the list. There is also controversy surrounding the viability of several of the listed territories as independent nations, such as Pitcairn, which had a population estimated at just 57 in 2015.

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