Report Title:

Native Hawaiian Sovereignty; Urging Federal Action and Support

WHEREAS, over the last three decades, the Hawaii society, and especially the Native Hawaiian population within that broader society, has had the opportunity to engage in a process of recovery and rediscovery - recovery of the arts, crafts, cultural expressions and language of Hawai`i past, and rediscovery of the historical events which have brought Hawai`i to its present political, social, and economic condition; and

WHEREAS, the process of recovery and rediscovery has brought about much mourning amongst the Native Hawaiian people, the descendants of Hawaiian nationals of the Kingdom of Hawai`i, and others who also share today the Hawaiian archipelago as their home; and

WHEREAS, in the aftermath of the process of recovery and rediscovery and of mourning, from many fronts within the Hawai`i society, people have engaged in dreaming of a just and secure Hawai`i society, addressing both possibilities of remaining within or stepping without the United States of America; and

WHEREAS, in 1991, the Hawai`i State Legislature, by Concurrent Resolution, encouraged the continued discussion and debate over the subject of Hawaii's future, both within or without the United States of America, forming the first of three legislatively construed entities, the Sovereignty Advisory Commission (SAC); and

WHEREAS, in 1993, the Hawai`i State Legislature, following the report of SAC, formed the Hawaiian Sovereignty Advisory Council (HSAC) which continued the investigation of Hawaii's history and conducted mass consultation with the native Hawaiian people on the future steps to be taken on the subject of Hawaiian sovereignty; and

WHEREAS, on November 23, 1993, the United States Congress adopted and the President of the United States signed Public Law 103-150 thereby confessing to a list of events violating the rights of self-determination to the Hawaiian Kingdom and apologized to the Native Hawaiian People for the complicity of the United States in such events which resulted in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom; and

WHEREAS, in 1993, the Hawai`i State Legislature enacted Act 354, Session Laws of Hawai`i 1993, acknowledging that the actions of the United States were illegal and immoral, and pledged its continued support to the native Hawaiian community by appropriating funds for the development of programs and curriculum to educate the general public about Hawaiian sovereignty through a purchase of service contract with Hui Na'auao; and

WHEREAS, throughout these developments, it has become more and more apparent that the events which brought Hawai`i into union with the States of the United States were of questionable legality and morality; and

WHEREAS, during these three decades, it is now made clear that the standards of international law and the obligations of the United States under the Charter of the United Nations had not been fully complied with in that the process of self-determination leading up to a choice for the people's future form of governance were not met in Hawai`i at the time the 1959 vote on Statehood was taken; and

WHEREAS, in 1959, when the Statehood Vote was put to the people of Hawai`i, the choices given to the people did not include choices for independence from or free association with the United States of America, but only the option of integration with the United States, in the form of a State of the Union, or as a territory of the United States; and

WHEREAS, when the United States Congress acted upon the vote bringing Hawai`i into the Union of States, a serious question was raised as to whether or not that act was consistent with the fulfillment of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people who were governed under a system of non-self governing territories pursuant to General Assembly Resolution 66 of the United Nations; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Twenty-First Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the Senate calls upon the United States government and the United Nations, as parties to the Charter of the United Nations, to:

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the United States, the Majority Leader of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of the United States Congress, the Secretary General of the United Nations, and 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.