Petition Against Bill 242-38

Independent Guåhan has organized a petition to give voice to the community's opposition to Senator Will Parkinson's Bill 242-38 which would eliminate the right of the Chamoru people to self-determination in a decolonization plebiscite. The petition text is below. It'll be presented to the Guam Legislature on Wednesday, February 18th at the public hearing for the bill. 

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We, the undersigned, express our steadfast opposition to Bill 242-38, which eliminates the ability of the CHamoru people to exercise their internationally recognized right to self-determination.

The bill seeks to open eligibility to participate in a decolonization plebiscite to all registered Guåhan voters. One merely has to have lived on the island for 30 days to establish residency and be able to register to vote in Guåhan’s elections. This means that new or even temporary residents with no ancestral, cultural, or historical ties to the island, and who have not suffered from the injustices of its colonization, would be eligible to participate in a decolonization plebiscite.

A decolonization plebiscite should not be an instrument that further colonizes and disempowers the CHamoru people in their homeland. Instead, it must be a mechanism for restoring justice to the distinct group of people whose right to sovereignty was violated.

For centuries, Guåhan has remained a non-self-governing territory, and as part of this status, the voices of the CHamoru people have been silenced, ignored, or minimized. A process of decolonization that is meant to move the island towards self-government must begin with respecting the CHamoru people and their right to self-determination, an internationally recognized human right that has been affirmed by nations across the globe.  

We, the undersigned, recognize how colonization has taken so much from the CHamoru people, who continue to struggle against the legacies of land theft, attacks on culture and language, federal control over local resources, the toxic contamination of their environment, and so much more. In honor of the CHamoru people, and carrying on their quest for justice, we will not support any action that violates their rights and dignity and their ability – after centuries of being silenced – to decide Guåhan’s political future.



 

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