The World’s Territories Without Full Sovereignty

According to the United Nations, a total of 17 “non-self-governing territories” remain worldwide, the majority of which are islands in the Caribbean and Pacific. This figure has dropped significantly from the 72 stated by the UN in 1946, when the international organization formalized the list.

Major progress in the process of decolonization was made in 1960, when 17 countries in sub-Saharan Africa gained independence from European colonial powers. The rate of decolonization has tailed off in recent years, with the last territory to have been removed from the list, Timor Leste, in 2002. According to the UN, territories are removed from the list once they have achieved independence or following a change of status.

As the following chart shows, the United Kingdom still administers 10 of the UN-defined non-self-governing territories, located in Europe, the Atlantic, the Caribbean and the Pacific. France is the administering power of New Caledonia and French Polynesia, while the United States administers the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam, as New Zealand administers Tokelau.

The only non-self-governing territory in Africa, Western Sahara, also has the distinction of currently having no definitive legal status and therefore no administering power, since Spain withdrew from it in 1976. The territory is nevertheless claimed by Morocco, which controls a large part of it, as well as by the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, a state recognized by the African Union, but not recognized by the majority of the international community.