2020 New Caledonian Independence Referendum
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 4 October 2020. The poll was the second to be held under the terms of the Nouméa Accord, following a similar referendum in 2018. Independence was rejected, with 53.26 percent of voters opposing such a change, a slight drop from the 2018 result in which 56.7 percent voted "no". Turnout was 85.69 percent. The Nouméa Accord permitted one further referendum to be held, should the Congress of New Caledonia vote for it. This third referendum was held in December 2021. Background New Caledonia was formally annexed by France in 1853, and Europeans and Polynesians, as well as other settlers, have since made the indigenous Kanaks a minority (27%, 11% and 39% respectively in the 2014 census). The territory was used as a penal colony from 1864 to 1897, and the Kanaks were excluded from the French economy and from mining work, and ultimately confined to reservations. Between 1976 and 1988, conflicts between the French government a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Flag Of France
The national flag of France (french: link=no, drapeau français) is a tricolour featuring three vertical bands coloured blue ( hoist side), white, and red. It is known to English speakers as the ''Tricolour'' (), although the flag of Ireland and others are also so known. The design was adopted after the French Revolution; while not the first tricolour, it became one of the most influential flags in history. The tricolour scheme was later adopted by many other nations in Europe and elsewhere, and, according to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' has historically stood "in symbolic opposition to the autocratic and clericalist royal standards of the past". Before the tricolour was adopted the royal government used many flags, the best known being a blue shield and gold fleur-de-lis (the Royal Arms of France) on a white background, or state flag. Early in the French Revolution, the Paris militia, which played a prominent role in the storming of the Bastille, wore a cockade of blue ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Ouvéa Cave Hostage Taking
The Ouvéa cave hostage taking occurred from 22 April 1988 to 5 May 1988 on the island of Ouvéa, New Caledonia, a south Pacific island under control of France. During the hostage taking and seizure of a brigade of gendarmerie, members of an independence movement, the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front, killed four gendarmes (including two unarmed) and took 27 unarmed gendarmes hostages (weapons were in the armory during the night), later also taking hostage a public prosecutor who had been sent to negotiate, seven members of the French GIGN military unit and a regular army lieutenant. They demanded talks with the French government about independence for New Caledonia from France. In previous years, about ten gendarmes had been killed in New Caledonia in connection with the independence movement, also some Kanaks had been killed by policiers and gendarmes as well like Richard Kamuda in 1975, Théodore Daye in 1980, Eloi Machoro and Marcel Nonaro in 1985 and a young Kanak ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Future With Confidence
The Future with Confidence (french: L'Avenir en confiance, AEC) is a liberal-conservative and anti-independence electoral alliance of political parties in New Caledonia. It forms part of the anti-separatist and French loyalist bloc in the Congress of New Caledonia. The alliance was founded in February 2019 as a common list for the 2019 New Caledonian legislative election and contains an amalgamation of four political parties which include: The Caledonian Republicans, The Rally, The Caledonian People's Movement (MPC) and All Caledonians. Ideologically, the group holds the common aim of opposing separatist and nationalist movements in New Caledonia by supporting New Caledonia's status as part of overseas France. It supports the Nouméa Accord The Nouméa Accord of 1998 is a promise by the French Republic to grant increased political power to New Caledonia and its original population, the Kanaks, over a twenty-year transition period. It was signed 5 May 1998 by Lionel Jospin ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Caledonian Union
The Caledonian Union (, UC) is a pro-independence and the oldest political party in New Caledonia. In the latest legislative elections of May 10, 2009, the party won around 11.65% of the popular vote, and 9 out of 54 seats in the Territorial Congress. History The Caledonian Union was born as a cross-community (multi-ethnic) autonomist party led by Maurice Lenormand, who was the island's sole representative in the French National Assembly. There he sat with the Popular Republican Movement, or MRP, and other Christian democratic parties in France. The party's first significant success was on February 8, 1953 with the election of 15 members of the Caledonian Union to the 25 seats General Council. , The Congress of New Caledonia (in French), 2004 Howeve ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Government Of France
The Government of France ( French: ''Gouvernement français''), officially the Government of the French Republic (''Gouvernement de la République française'' ), exercises executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister, who is the head of government, as well as both senior and junior ministers. The Council of Ministers, the main executive organ of the Government, was established in the Constitution in 1958. Its members meet weekly at the Élysée Palace in Paris. The meetings are presided over by the President of France, the head of state, although the officeholder is not a member of the Government. The Government's most senior ministers are titled as ministers of state (''ministres d'État''), followed in protocol order by ministers (''ministres''), ministers delegate (''ministres délégués''), whereas junior ministers are titled as secretaries of state (''secrétaires d'État''). All members of the Government, who are appointed by the President following ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jacques Lafleur
Jacques Lafleur (20 November 1932 – 4 December 2010) was a French politician born in Nouméa, New Caledonia, France. Lafleur was a leader of one of the two anti-independence parties in New Caledonia, the RPCR (Rally for Caledonia in the Republic). He was a signatory to the Matignon Accords in 1988 and the Nouméa Accord in 1998. He was elected deputy on 16 June 2002, for the 12th session of the legislature (2002–2007), representing the 1st district in New Caledonia, but lost his hold on power as a result of the elections of 9 May 2004, which propelled a new party, named "Future Together" (Avenir Ensemble), into control of government in South Province. Conviction for slander Lafleur, whose fortune stemmed partly from mining interests, reportedly slandered and intimidated Goldman Environmental Prize winner Bruno Van Peteghem over Van Peteghem's efforts to protect the ecology of New Caledonia. Offices held * 1978–2007 : Deputy * 7 March 1983 – 3 June 1997 : Nouméa ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Jean-Marie Tjibaou
Jean-Marie Tjibaou (January 30, 1936 – May 4, 1989) was a French politician in New Caledonia and leader of the Kanak independence movement. The son of a tribal chief, Tjibaou was ordained a Catholic priest but abandoned his religious vocation for a life in political activism. During the 1970s, he undertook a thesis in ethnology at the Sorbonne. While he did not complete his studies, he became engaged in cultural and ethnicity issues on New Caledonia. In 1975 he arranged the Melanesia 2000 festival, which emphasized the Kanak identity. He was appointed mayor of Hienghène in 1977 and, in 1979, he was made territorial councillor in the newly formed Independence Front, and the head of the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front in 1984. On 4 May 1989, he was murdered along with in Ouvéa by another Kanak, . A cultural leader in the promotion of the indigenous Kanak culture, Wéa was shot dead by Tjibaou's bodyguards after the attack. Witnesses said other gu ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Matignon Agreements (1988)
The Matignon Agreements were agreements signed in the Hôtel Matignon by Jean-Marie Tjibaou and Jacques Lafleur on 26 June 1988 between loyalists who wanted to keep New Caledonia as a part of the French Republic, and separatists, who did not. The agreements were arranged under the aegis of the Government of France as a result of discussions and compromises arranged by Christian Blanc, the negotiator for Michel Rocard's government. Description The accords set up a ten-year period of development. Institutional and economical provisions were made for the Kanak community. The New Caledonians agreed not to raise the independence issue during this period. The agreements provided amnesty for those involved in the Ouvéa cave hostage taking incident of 1988, and interdicted all proceedings in regard to the deaths of four gendarmes and 19 members of the independentist Kanaks. The Matignon Agreements were approved by French and New Caledonian voters in a referendum held on 6 November 1988, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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1987 New Caledonian Independence Referendum
An independence referendum was held in New Caledonia on 13 September 1987. Although former French president François Mitterrand had promised short-term residents of the territory would not be able to vote, they were enfranchised for the referendum. As a result of claimed failures to respect the rights of the indigenous population, the United Nations Special Committee on Decolonization did not send observers.Voter boycott expected in New Caledonia elections UPI, 12 September 1982 Results See also *2018 New Caledonian independence ref ...
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United Nations List Of Non-self-governing Territories
Chapter XI of the United Nations Charter defines a non-self-governing territory (NSGT) as a territory "whose people have not yet attained a full measure of self-government". In practice, an NSGT is a territory deemed by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to be "non-self-governing". Chapter XI of the UN Charter also includes a "Declaration on Non-Self-Governing Territories" that the interests of the occupants of dependent territories are paramount and requires member states of the United Nations in control of such territories to submit annual information reports concerning the development of those territories. Since 1946, the UNGA has maintained a list of non-self governing territories under member states' control. Since its inception, dozens of territories have been removed from the list, typically when they attained independence or internal self-government, while other territories have been added as new administering countries joined the United Nations or the General As ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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United Nations Committee On Decolonization
The United Nations Special Committee on the Situation with Regard to the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, or the Special Committee on Decolonization (C-24), is a committee of the United Nations General Assembly that was established in 1961 and is exclusively devoted to the issue of decolonization. History When the United Nations was created, there were 750 million people living in territories that were non-self-governing. However, the Charter of the United Nations included, in Chapter XI, provisions calling for recognition of the rights of inhabitants of territories administered by its Member States. It called for these Member States to aid in the establishment of self-governance through the development of free political institutions, as well as to keep in mind the political aspirations of the peoples. The Charter also created, in Chapter XII, the international trusteeship system. This system allowed for ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Guardian Media Group, owned by the Scott Trust. The trust was created in 1936 to "secure the financial and editorial independence of ''The Guardian'' in perpetuity and to safeguard the journalistic freedom and liberal values of ''The Guardian'' free from commercial or political interference". The trust was converted into a limited company in 2008, with a constitution written so as to maintain for ''The Guardian'' the same protections as were built into the structure of the Scott Trust by its creators. Profits are reinvested in journalism rather than distributed to owners or shareholders. It is considered a newspaper of record in the UK. The editor-in-chief Katharine Viner succeeded Alan Rusbridger in 2015. Since 2018, the paper's main news ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |