newsletter
contact us
donations![2014: for the first time in decades, the Free Territory of Trieste is being discussed at the United Nations! [video]](https://www.triest-ngo.org/wp-content/uploads/strikingr/images/1040_geneve_mainphoto_small-198x198.jpg)
On Tuesday, November 25, a fundamental step has been taken, to re-ignite the International discussion about the unresolved Question of Trieste, breaking a decades-long silence. The whole matter should, instead, be regulated by the current International Laws and Treaties in force.
After decades of silence for the first time the Question of the Free Territory of Trieste has been faced at the United Nations (UN).Having been invited by UNPO; the Triestines could, in fact, intervene in person at a UN General Assembly (Room XX of the Palais de Nations in Geneva), in front of all the permanent delegations of all the UN-member Nations, International (European and non-European) institutions, a number of UN commissions and bodies, as well as in front of the main International NGOs.
During our intervention, which has been included in the earliest phases of the forum on minority rights (Agenda 2: “Legal framework and key concepts”), the permanent representatives at the UN of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia did not make any statement, nor did they oppose it (despite having the chance to do so).
Our intervention has been accepted by the hundreds of delegates with an unusual silence, indicating a certain interest for the topic.
The transcript of the intervention
Dear Chairman, dear participants
We are here on behalf of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO).
We would like to thank UNPO for giving us the opportunity to speak at this forum on the violations that have been ongoing for more than sixty years; to the civil and political rights of the citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste.
These rights are conferred to the citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste through the Treaty of Peace with Italy signed in Paris on 10 February 1947 by Annex VI – article 6, which states: “Italian citizens who were domiciled on June 10, 1940 within the borders of the Free Territory constituents and their children born after that date will become citizens of the Free Territory of origin and shall enjoy full rights as citizens. By becoming citizens of the Free Territory, they will lose their Italian nationality.”
What the citizens of the Free Territory of Trieste claim is still law by the Italian civil code and also for all countries who signed the Agreement of Succession of Yugoslavia. As a matter of fact, the Peace Treaty of Paris was converted into Italian and Yugoslavian law.
Since then, nothing changed and nothing has been done to control the application of the Peace Treaty and the application of existing international laws. As a matter of fact, the citizens of this area have been oppressed and forced to abandon these lands.
Today, there are no less than 500,000 emigrants and descendants around the world.
It is time to charge the administrators of The Free Territory of Trieste for all the violations of civil and political rights, despite the mandate of the United Nations and the statements of the Treaty of Peace.
The nations that administer these lands do not recognize the legal facts of the Free Territory of Trieste.
This statement is clearly evident also by the approval of the Resolution n.16 of the UN Security Council of 10 January 1947, which established the Provisional Regime of the Free Territory of Trieste, voted just one month before the signing of the Treaty of Peace, which confirmed the creation of this country by stating also the exact coordinates of the borders. On that occasion, the Security Council declared the birth of this nation and United Nations still is its guarantor.
Concluding our intervention, UNPO asks for solidarity and we give our solidarity to all people who are fighting for the recognition of their human, civil and political rights, as defined for instance by article 15 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:
Everyone has the right to a nationality;
No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality, nor denied the right to change his nationality.
Thank you President and Members of this assembly for the opportunity granted to us.