BIG: International Decolonisation Front adopts "Corte Declaration" in Corsica PHOTO

The 44th edition of the “International Days” event, organised by the political movement Nazione, which campaigns for Corsican independence, was held in the city of Corte, Corsica.

According to local media, the Baku Initiative Group said the event was attended by representatives of the International Decolonisation Front, established in Baku in July 2024 with the support of the Baku Initiative Group. The Front brings together political parties and movements campaigning for the independence of overseas territories under French and Dutch colonial rule.

At the conclusion of the event, the International Decolonisation Front adopted the “Corte Declaration”.

The declaration states that the same colonial mechanisms of exploitation are applied across the various geographical territories administered by the French state, violating the fundamental rights and sovereignty of local peoples. It argues that the economic policies pursued by official Paris ruthlessly exploit local resources, create artificially high costs and mass unemployment, forcing young people to leave their native lands, emigrate or become dependent on social welfare.

The declaration also states that, with the direct support and complicity of the French “judicial” system, the lands of indigenous populations are being confiscated, conditions are being created for speculation in the interests of external forces, and “colonisation through settlement” is deliberately continuing with the aim of changing the demographic structure and turning indigenous peoples into a minority in their own lands.

It further claims that French authorities are unlawfully using force against peaceful activists and resistance movements opposing colonialism and are criminalising them. The declaration says official Paris has created an atmosphere of complete impunity by concealing serious environmental and humanitarian scandals through judicial proceedings, including the pesticide poisoning caused by chlordecone, which affected tens of thousands of people in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

The International Decolonisation Front called on France to immediately stop attempts to deny the national and political existence of these peoples and attempts to reduce them to powerless “island communities” through the Bougival Agreements in New Caledonia (Kanaky), the Beauvau process in Corsica and discussions in other regions.

The Front stated that each of these territories is an independent nation with the right to self-determination under international law and historical legitimacy.

Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 75/123 on the complete eradication of colonialism, the Front announced its intention to expand legal, diplomatic and political efforts at the global level to have overseas territories under French colonial rule re-enter the UN’s official list of territories subject to decolonisation, and to continue this collective strategy without interruption.

By Aghakazim Guliyev