RADICAL independence campaigners have handed papers to the United Nations in the first step of their bid to begin the “decolonisation” of Scotland.
Liberation Scotland said they had asked the UN’s special committee on decolonisation to be recognised as Scotland’s “peaceful liberation movement”.
They have also given advance notice of a petition which will ask the UN committee for Scotland to be added to its list of non-self-governing territories, which are the current or former colonies of the US, the UK, France and New Zealand, including places such as Bermuda, Gibraltar, French Polynesia, the Falkland Islands and Saint Helena.
To be recognised as a non-self-governing territory, the UN would need to accept Liberation Scotland’s arguments that Scots lacked a “full measure of self-government”.
The campaign group, which claims to have more than 17,000 members or around 0.3% of the population, argue that Scotland is a colony of England and should be recognised as such by the international community.
The UN’s special committee on decolonisation, sometimes referred to as C-24, was set up to monitor the political situation in non-self-governing territories, to uphold people’s right to self-determination and make recommendations for resolutions to the General Assembly.
Professor Alf Baird, co-convener of Liberation Scotland, said: “Scotland’s political and constitutional status aligns with the established international criteria for recognition as a non-self-governing territory.
“The forthcoming petition aims to rectify Scotland’s exclusion from the UN decolonisation agenda by formally requesting its inclusion on the list of non-self-governing territories, thereby initiating the process for Scotland’s recognition as a territory entitled to self-determination and independence under UN oversight.”
He said that handing over the papers to the UN committee was a “momentous development” but one that was “necessary due to the undemocratic nature of our political system”.
Baird added: “There is also the realisation that colonial exploitation and domination of Scotland and its people must be ended and can be, via the UN decolonisation process Liberation Scotland has initiated.
“Almost all former colonies that have become independent countries since the creation of the United Nations in 1945 have done so through the UN self-determination and decolonisation process.”
Sara Salyers, director of Liberation Scotland’s campaigning arm Salvo Scotland, said that the Union was not a “voluntary partnership” but a system of “ongoing colonisation” marked by the “displacement of the indigenous population, the suppression of Scotland’s cultures, and the colonial exploitation of Scotland’s maritime and territorial assets”.
She added that by “misrepresenting” Scotland as a voluntary partner instead of a “dependency of the English Crown” the UK Government had failed on its obligations under international law to inform the UN of “statistical and other information of a technical nature relating to economic, social, and educational conditions” in Scotland, as set out in Article 73e of the UN Charter.
Liberation Scotland is being represented at the UN by Geneva-based legal firm Justice pour Tous Internationale, which has previously acted for campaigner Craig Murray.
Sharof Azizov, Justice pour Tous Internationale’s director, said: “The advance notice of petition convincingly argues that Scotland lost its political autonomy and became a colony under Westminster’s governance and that this and other institutions of the state have systemically eroded Scotland’s constitutional distinctiveness and suppressed Scotland’s rights to self-determination.”
