The "Corte Declaration" adopted against France's colonial policy

From August 7 to 9, the Corsican city of Corte hosted the 44th edition of the "International Days" event, organized by the political movement Nazione, which advocates for Corsica's independence.

This was reported by the Baku Initiative Group (BIG).

The event was also attended by representatives of the International Decolonization Front, established in July 2024 in Baku with the support of BIG and uniting political parties and movements advocating for the independence of overseas territories under the colonial administration of France and the Netherlands.

Following the event, the International Decolonization Front adopted the "Corte Declaration."

The declaration notes that in all the geographically diverse territories under the administration of the French state, the same mechanisms of colonial exploitation are applied, trampling on the fundamental rights and sovereignty of indigenous peoples. It emphasizes that the deliberate economic policy pursued by official Paris leads to the ruthless exploitation of local resources, an artificial increase in the cost of living in the territories, and mass unemployment, forcing young people to leave their native lands, emigrate, or depend on social benefits.

In addition, it is pointed out that, with the direct patronage and assistance of the French judicial system, the lands of the local population are being seized, conditions are being created for speculation in the interests of foreign capital, and "settler colonization" is systematically continuing in order to change the demographic structure and turn indigenous peoples into a minority in their own homeland.

It is also noted that the French authorities use unlawful force against peaceful activists and resistance movements opposing colonialism and subject them to criminalization. It is emphasized that official Paris, through court rulings, is trying to hush up serious environmental and humanitarian scandals, in particular the case involving dangerous poisoning with the pesticide chlordecone, which affected tens of thousands of people in Martinique and Guadeloupe, thereby creating an atmosphere of complete impunity.

In the declaration, the International Decolonization Front demands that France immediately cease attempts to deny the national and political existence of these peoples through the Bougival agreements in New Caledonia (Kanaky), the Beauvau process in Corsica, and ongoing negotiations in other regions, as well as attempts to reduce them to the level of merely disenfranchised "island communities."

The declaration states that each of these territories is a separate nation possessing the right to self-determination based on international law and historical legitimacy.

The Front, referring to UN General Assembly Resolution No. 75/123, which provides for the complete elimination of colonialism, declares its intention to expand its legal, diplomatic, and political efforts at the global level in order to reinstate the overseas territories under French colonial administration on the official UN list of non-self-governing territories subject to decolonization, and to continue implementing this collective strategy.