In her bi-weekly column, “State of the Territory,” former Sen. Janelle K. Sarauw delves deeper into issues of concern for V.I. residents.
Our path towards self-determination involves a significant role for the United Nations. This international organization commits its member nations, including the United States, to promote self-government in dependent territories and respect the desires of their people for political freedom. As a founding member and a signer of the U.N. Charter, the United States is bound by this treaty.
The U.S. Virgin Islands are considered a dependent territory without self-governance, leading the United States government to report conditions there annually to the United Nations since 1946, as required by the Charter. However, the U.S. consistently refused to allow a United Nations fact-finding mission to visit the Virgin Islands, despite annual requests by the United Nations decolonization committee.
This refusal left us wondering if the United States had strayed from its commitment to respect the opinions of the world community. However, in 1977, the U.S. government relented, allowing a U.N. mission to visit the Virgin Islands. Following their visit, the United Nations mission produced an 87-page report asserting that the U.S. Virgin Islands remained a non-self-governing territory and its residents did not enjoy the right of self-determination.
Crucially, the report pointed out that the 1976 congressional enabling legislation for a locally adopted constitution did not grant the people of the territory the ability to change their constitutional relationship with the administering power — the United States. The U.N. Mission urged the United States government, in cooperation with the Virgin Islands government, to engage in open and meaningful discussions on the available political options. It also recommended determining the political aspirations of the people through a referendum or plebiscite under the observation of the United States.
Amid these international developments, it’s important to consider the role of the Soviet Union. It can be argued that the Soviet Union, excluding countries within its influence, is the world’s preeminent colonial power. If we define colonialism as the exploitation of a subjugated population for the benefit of another country, countries like Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan within the Soviet sphere fit this description.
Stepping back from the Soviet influence, we find that there are 41 populated dependent territories in the entire non-communist world, with only 12 of these territories having larger populations than the U.S. Virgin Islands. Among these 41 dependent territories, 13 are under British jurisdiction, nine under French rule, and seven under U.S. control.
Considering these statistics, the United States could be seen as the third-ranking colonial power in the non-communist world. It’s worth noting that in 1960, the United Nations General Assembly identified over 80 million people who were still in colonial status. Consequently, in that year, the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples was adopted. Between 1960 and 1976, around 70 million of these people gained their independence, and 47 more nations became United Nations members.
Presently, the United Nations Decolonization Committee acknowledges that only 22 territories in the world have not yet achieved self-determination or independence, and the 1960 U.N. Declaration still applies to these territories. The U.S. Virgin Islands is among these 22, and this list gradually shrinks year by year. According to the United Nations, there are only two options for dependent territories to be removed from this list—independence or integration.
Other Caribbean territories to which the Declaration still applies include the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Montserrat, and Anguilla. On the contrary, the Declaration is not applicable to Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, Martinique, the Netherlands Antilles, and French Guiana. These territories, although not independent, are considered by the United Nations to have achieved a status of integration or self-government in relation to their respective parent countries.
Our journey towards self-determination continued, with discussions initiated in 1979 by President Jimmy Carter’s White House Interagency Territorial Policy Review Task Force. As a response to the Task Force report on the status of U.S. territories, Gov. Juan Luis stated that the Virgin Islands government sought “freer association, similar to the status of Puerto Rico.” He endorsed discussions on political status with Congress and advocated for voting representation in Congress and participation in national elections.
It’s intriguing to note that Gov. Carlos Romero Barcelo of Puerto Rico described “commonwealth” as essentially another word for “territory” in 1980, citing a U.S. Supreme Court decision that confirmed Puerto Rico’s status under the Territorial Clause of the U.S. Constitution. If the Virgin Islands were to have voting representation in Congress and participate in national elections, it would possess a distinct status from Puerto Rico, which has non-voting representation in Congress and no participation in national elections.
In February 1980, President Carter made a crucial announcement to Congress, highlighting the nation’s commitment to encourage self-determined political, economic, and social development in the territories. He emphasized that the people of the insular territories should have all political development options open to them, provided these choices were economically feasible and did not compromise national security. Responsibility for deciding when these caveats were met was not entirely clear.
President Carter indicated that any modifications in political status should be discussed with the Secretary of the Interior and the Congress following consultations with territorial leaders. The details of this process remained uncertain, and the ultimate decision-maker was not explicitly defined.
Despite the mixed messages from the Carter administration, he conveyed the Democratic Party’s commitment to self-determination for territories like the U.S. Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands. He vigorously supported the realization of political status aspirations chosen democratically by the people.
To explore political options for the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Legislature established the Virgin Islands Status Commission in 1980, selecting Earle B. Ottley as its executive director. At the time, the territory embarked on its fourth attempt to draft a constitution, although Congress expressly prohibited any discussion of the issue of status or federal relations.
The Commission was born from a sense of frustration regarding this prohibition, alongside the hope that federal policy might undergo a shift. The broader Caribbean region was moving toward independence, and President Carter’s stance indicated a review of federal territorial policy. While excitement was mounting for self-determination, President Carter’s failure to secure re-election in 1980 and the subsequent lack of enthusiasm from the Reagan Administration diminished the momentum.
President Ronald Reagan’s Caribbean Basin Initiative did not include any prospects for self-determination in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Simultaneously, the U.S. government granted its Pacific trust territory, Micronesia, a level of autonomy and self-determination that exceeded what was contemplated for the Virgin Islands or Guam. This situation was rationalized by a U.S. Interior official as Micronesia having “more bargaining chips on the table” because the United States had no sovereignty over that area.
In summary, it’s clear that, presently, the people of the Virgin Islands do not have the right to self-determination. Our pursuit of self-governance continues, and most Virgin Islanders understand that this struggle will persist for years to come.
