Non-Self-Governing Territories: a sacred trust

In the UN Charter, a Non-Self-Governing Territory is defined as a territory “whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government.”

In 1946, several UN Member States identified a number of territories under their administration that were not self-governing and placed them on a UN list. Countries administering Non-Self-Governing Territories are called administering Powers. As a result of the decolonization process over the years, most of the territories were removed from the list.

Chapter XI of the UN Charter – the Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories – provides that Member States administering Territories, which have not attained self-government recognize “that the interests of the inhabitants of these territories are paramount” and accept as a “sacred trust” the obligation to promote their well-being.

Furthermore, administering Powers, in addition to ensuring the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the peoples, undertake to assist them in developing self-government and free political institutions. Administering Powers also have an obligation to transmit regularly to the Secretary-General information on the economic, social and educational conditions in the territories under their administration.

In a later agreement, the UN General Assembly, by its resolution 54/91 of 6 December 1999, urged the administering Powers concerned to take effective measures to safeguard and guarantee the inalienable rights of the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories to their natural resources, including land, and to establish and maintain control over the future development of those resources, and requested the administering Powers to take all necessary steps to protect the property rights of the peoples of those territories.

It also urged all States, directly and through their action in the specialized agencies and other organizations of the United Nations system, to provide moral and material assistance to the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories.

Through the same resolution, the General Assembly requested the annual observance of the Week of Solidarity with the Peoples of Non-Self-Governing Territories

Source: https://www.un.org/en/observances/non-self-governing-week