Guam § 2101 - Legislative Findings and Intent.

§ 2101. Legislative Findings and Intent.

I Liheslaturan Guåhan finds that the native inhabitants of Guam, since

its recorded history, have been subjected to incessant control by external

colonial powers. I Liheslaturan Guåhan further finds that upon the

execution of the bilateral treaty between the two (2) sovereign nations,

Spain and the United States of America, the transfer of colonial control over

the lands and the people of Guam was effectuated. The United States, as the

succeeding colonial power over the lands and the people of Guam, acceded

to and recognized in the 1898 Treaty of Paris that the political rights of the

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IMPLEMENTATION AND EXERCISE OF CHAMORRO

SELF DETERMINATION

native inhabitants of Guam shall be protected and that their collective right

to political self-determination is inalienable.

I Liheslaturan Guåhan further finds that the United States as the

administering power, in the Charter of the United Nations, designated the

territory of Guam as a ‘Non-Self Governing Territory.’ By doing so it

recognized that the native inhabitants have the right to one day exercise

their collective self-determination through a decolonization process, to

either join the ranks of self-governing entities as an independent nation or

an independent nation in free association with another nation, or become a

fully integrated state within the United States of America.

Consistent with these inalienable principles, the native inhabitants or

people of Guam have been recognized by the U.S. Congress in the 1950

Organic Act of Guam, specifically in 48 U.S.C. § 14211, as reenacted in 8

U.S.C.§ 1407. Guam’s right to self-determination is further founded in the

United States’ yearly reports to the United Nations on the Non-self Govern-

ing Territory of Guam; 1950 Organic Act of Guam; United Nations

Resolution Number 1541 (XV) United Nations Resolution 1514 (XV); §

307 (a) of the United States Immigration and Nationality Act; and Part I,

Article 1, Paragraphs 1 and 3 of the International Covenant on Civil and

Political Rights.

It is the intention of I Liheslaturan Guåhan that three (3) political

options be presented to the Native Inhabitants of Guam to ascertain their

future political relationship with the United States of America, namely,

Independence, Free Association or Statehood.