THE TRUSTEESHIP SYSTEM

THE TRUSTEESHIP SYSTEM

The decolonisation efforts of the United Nations derive from the Charter principle of ”equal rights and self~determination of peoples”, as well as from three specific chapters in the Charter -XI (Non-self-governing Territories), X11 and XIII (Trusteeship Areas) devoted to the interests of dependent peoples. Since 1960, the UN has also been guided by the General Assembly’s Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples [Resolution 1514 (XV)], by which member states proclaimed the necessity of bringing colonialism to a speedy end. 

       The UN Trusteeship system under Art. 77 took over from the League of Nations mandate system, assuming responsibility for the remaining territories that had not reached independence.Under Chapter XII of the Charter, the UN established the International Trusteeship System for the supervision of Trust Territories placed under it by individual agreements with the states administering them. The system applied to (i) territories then held under mandates established by the League of Nations after World War 1, (ii) territories detached from enemy states as a result of World War II, and (iii) territories voluntarily placed under the system by states responsible for their administration. Under Art. 76 the system was intended to promote the political, economic, social and educational advancement of the inhabitants of the Trust Territories and their progressive development towards self-government or independence, as appropriate to the situation in the lands, based on the freely expressed wishes of the people concerned.

      Supervision over the Trust Territories was sought to be exercised by the Trusteeship Council, which was to report ultimately to the General Assembly. The administration of each territory was governed by a trusteeship agreement with the administering power. The system provided for a distinction between ordinary territories and Strategic Trust Territories. The latter category was created at the insistence of the US Navy, which wanted to use the islands in the Pacific Ocean that Japan had governed for its own military purposes. The administering powers of all ordinary territories report to the Trusteeship Council on their operations, but reports on Strategic Trust Territories go to the Security Council. The Council, where action requires concurrence of the Great Powers, exercises all functions regarding the Strategic Trust Territories, including approval of agreements. Only US-administered islands were designated as Strategic Trust Territories. 

Two of the former mandated territories of the days of the League of Nations never became part of the Trusteeship system. The British mandate of Palestine was excluded because of the dispute between the Jewish and Arab populations that led to the establishment of Israel in 1948. The other territory is Southwest Africa, or Namibia as it is now called. Administered by South Africa as an integral part of its territory, Namibia has been the subject of a continuing dispute since 1946, and no agreement could be reached to incorporate it in the system. 

The Trusteeship Council has a special composition that tries to balance the self-interest of administering powers with the notion of a ”sacred trust” with regard to non-self-governing peoples. Therefore, it consists of an equal number of administering and non-administering powers (Art. 86 of the UN Charter). But, in any case, it includes the permanent members of the Security Council (some of which did not administer territories). The Council Considers reports submitted by the administering states, accepts and examines petitions from the inhabitants of the Trust Territories, and decides on whether progress has been made towards the goals of the system. 

A special power, far beyond anything known in the League system, allows the Council to send visiting missions to the territories; in practice, each of them received such a mission, which observed the situation and interviewed officials and inhabitants, about every three years. The administering powers are usually states, but in one instance the UN itself served as an administering power. This unusual situation grew out of the transfer of New Guinea (West Irian) from Dutch to Indonesian sovereignty in 1962. For several months, the UN governed the territory, serving as an intermediary in the transfer process. But now it is impossible to compose the Trusteeship Council according to the required balance, because very few territories are under administration in accordance with trust agreements.