French Polynesia’s pro-independence Tavini Huiraatira party says France’s refusal to engage in any UN-supervised decolonisation process is becoming increasingly untenable.
In 2013, the UN General Assembly re-inscribed the French territory on its decolonisation list, but Paris has rejected the decision and keeps boycotting the annual decolonisation committee’s debate on French Polynesia.
While France cooperates with the UN on the decolonisation of New Caledonia, the French government has ignored calls by Tavini to invite the UN to assess the territory’s situation.
On return from New York last week, the Tavini delegates said they will raise the continued French inaction in the French National Assembly’s Foreign Affairs Commission.
The territory’s Assembly members in Paris are Tavini politicians, who won all three seats in the June election.
One of them, Moetai Brotherson, said he spoke to the French ambassador outside the committee venue to tell him that France’s “empty chair policy isn’t a good look”.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.
