Below is the Kanaky Resolution made by WILPF Australia members at the 2024 Triennial.
(Picture FLNKS-Officiel on Facebook)
WILPF stands in solidarity with the Kanak people during this time of heightened tensions in New Caledonia (Kanaky).
In response to what started as peaceful protests against the change to voting rights in the territory, France’s response is to send in more troops and declare a state of emergency.
In fact, the unrest is being caused by France itself.
The French parliament passed reforms to local provincial elections, changing the territory’s voting rules.
The new rules allow French residents who have lived tin the territory for 10 years to vote. This change is against the terms of the 1998 Noumea Accord. The Noumea Accord agreed that only the Indigenous Kanak people and long-term residents would be eligible to vote in provincial and local referendums.
The main pro-independence party, the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS), has denounced the reforms and has proposed establishing a dialogue and mediation to discuss a way forward.
France should listen to the Kanak people.
The French authorities must uphold the rights of the Kanak people and their right to peaceful expression and assembly without interference.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states:
“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.