Aust govt violated UN obligation

AS a human rights advocate familiar with international conventions, including the United Nations colonisation resolutions 1514 and 1541, Tobia’s letter raises some interesting issues.
As an Australian, I find it sick that my government had again violated its UN obligations by not allowing the Papuan people their legal right to self-determination.
The Australian government in 1975 rushed to distance itself from PNG’s administration and the mess which would be created by lobbying a Western political, business, and social structure on a group of Melanesian cultures.
As a colony, PNG was entitled to decide what kind of relationship it wanted with Australia.
Strictly speaking if Australia has not yet allowed the PNG population to express their option, then a PNG referendum today should still be able to specify the territory’s preference between the three basic options of independence, remaining a colony, or forming some form of free association with Australia.

Andrew Johnson
Via email

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