Puerto Rico at the United Nations
Advocating for decolonization at the UN is both futile — and vital.
I have the privilege of leading Boricuas Unidos en la Diáspora, a network of Puerto Ricans in the United States who advocate and organize for our nation’s independence. This past week, for the third consecutive year, we joined dozens of other organizations, leaders, and activists at the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization. The committee meets annually to hear testimony on Puerto Rico’s colonial status and to approve a resolution affirming Puerto Rico’s right to self-determination and independence.
You can watch our organization’s full speech, which I co-wrote, here:
All of this is both more and less impressive, and important, than it sounds. The impotence and often fecklessness of the United Nations, even in the face of the global crises it was founded to address, is well known. Indeed, it has been on full display this year, as countless non-binding resolutions have failed to stop the ongoing genocide in Gaza.
So why go at all? If the UN can’t or won’t intervene to end a war that has left tens of thousands of civilians dead, what are the odds it will play a meaningful role in the admittedly less urgent matter of Puerto Rico’s decolonization?
The answer, of course, is zero. But, for several reasons, it’s vital for Puerto Rican activists to keep trying.
First and perhaps most importantly: Puerto Rico is a colony, and colonialism is a violation of human rights and international law. The fact that we live in a world where that barely matters, and where international institutions like the UN are largely a laughingstock, is a shameful reflection of our collective failure to build societies — including a global community — that guarantee basic political rights and justice.
But the moment we shrug, accept that sad state of affairs, and stop recurring to organizations like the UN entirely, we make matters worse. If we expect little or nothing from the United Nations, we abet a vicious circle in which little or nothing is exactly what we’ll get. Arguably, that’s how we ended up with such ineffective institutions in the first place.
Part of setting higher expectations is also holding organizations to account. And in the case of Puerto Rico, the United Nations has a lot to answer for. In 1953, the UN accepted the United States’ argument that Puerto Rico had attained a meaningful level of self-rule (a notion that, in recent years, America’s own legal and political institutions have refuted) and removed the island from its list of non self-governing territories. That was a grievous mistake that helped obscure the true nature of Puerto Rico’s ongoing colonial status for decades.
Then, in 1960, the UN General Assembly passed a Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. And yet 64 years after that, in Puerto Rico and elsewhere, colonialism endures. As you heard if you watched the speech, this is the 42nd year in which the Special Committee and Decolonization has approved that aforementioned resolution on Puerto Rico’s self-determination and independence. And yet: ditto.
These are dark stains on the United Nations and the international community. They have to be exposed and denounced so that, hopefully, they can soon be washed away.
Puerto Ricans must also continue to appeal to the UN to rebut the notion that our nation’s status is purely a matter of domestic American politics. Yes: Congress has plenary power over Puerto Rico and, given international inaction, they continue to wield it. Indeed, much of our organization’s work is centered on advocacy in Congress — whose own inaction on Puerto Rico’ status has been the subject of much of my writing.
But here, again, it’s worth pushing back on what it is and pursuing what should be. Just as companies shouldn’t regulate themselves and the police can’t be expected to police themselves, the United States should not have absolute power over the decolonization process of the nation it has colonized. To suggest otherwise is to imagine that I could come into your home, steal all your things, write a note (or, say, a Constitution) explaining why I was allowed to steal them, and refer to my own writing as the source of authority for whether I should have to give them back.
Finally, the issue of Puerto Rico’s status suffers above all else from profound and widespread ignorance. Most people, including most Americans — who have a political and moral responsibility to end their nation’s colonial rule over my own — simply know nothing at all about our political subordination. As we work to rectify that, and to build a broad movement for decolonization, it’s important to take up space in every type of community and institution; to denounce colonialism and advocate for independence from every podium and into every microphone.
The United Nations will never be the only — or even the most important — arena in which to speak that message and wage that struggle. But it can be a valuable one, if we care about it and pay attention. That part is up to all of us.
