A/RES/48/51
Page 11
the administering Power, the administering Power has approved of the closure
of aviation activities at the Naval Air Station Agana,
Aware that large tracts of land in the Territory continue to be reserved
for the use of the Department of Defense of the administering Power,
Cognizant that the administering Power has undertaken a programme of
transferring surplus federal land to the Government of Guam,
Cognizant also of the potential for diversifying and developing the
economy of Guam through commercial fishing and agriculture,
Conscious that immigration into the Territory has resulted in the
indigenous Chamorros becoming a minority in their homeland and that, in 1990,
50 per cent of the residents were not born in the Territory,
Mindful that discussions between the Guam Commission on SelfDetermination and the executive branch of the administering Power on the draft
Guam Commonwealth Act concluded at the end of the previous administration of
the administering Power, and that the Guam Commission on Self-Determination
has requested the new Administration to appoint a special representative of
the President to lead the administering Power’s review of the Guam
Commonwealth Act,
Recalling that in referendums held in Guam in 1987 the people of Guam
endorsed a draft Commonwealth Act that, upon expeditious enactment by the
Congress of the United States of America, would reaffirm the right of the
people of Guam to draft their own constitution and to govern themselves,
Recalling also the dispatch in 1979 of a United Nations visiting mission
to the Territory,
1.
Calls upon the administering Power to continue to ensure that the
presence of military bases and installations in the Territory does not
constitute an obstacle to the implementation of the Declaration on the
Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples nor hinder the
population of the Territory from exercising its right to self-determination,
including independence, in conformity with the purposes and principles of the
Charter of the United Nations;
2.
Also calls upon the administering Power, in cooperation with the
territorial Government, to continue to expedite the transfer of land to the
people of the Territory and to take the necessary steps to safeguard their
property rights;
3.
Notes that discussions held since 1988 between the Government of
the United States of America and the Guam Commission on Self-Determination
have resulted in qualified agreements on the provisions of the Guam
Commonwealth Act, including agreements to disagree on several substantive
portions of the Guam proposal, and that the new Administration of the
administering Power has been requested by Guam to conduct expeditiously its
review of the Guam Commonwealth Act in concert with the Guam Commission on
Self-Determination;
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