81. Editorial Note
The UN General Assembly held a series of plenary meetings between October 17 and November 2, 1972, on the implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples. It adopted a series of resolutions on November 2. Resolution 2908 (XXVII) expressed concern that 12 years after the Declaration, “millions of persons still lived under conditions of ruthless colonialist and racialist repression.” It reaffirmed the legitimacy of the struggles for liberation of colonial peoples, particularly in Africa, and urged UN member states, agencies, and organizations to provide them with moral and material support and to withhold assistance to Portugal, South Africa, and Southern Rhodesia. Resolution 2909 (XXVII) called for a broader campaign of publicity on behalf of UN efforts to promote decolonization. Resolution 2910 (XXVII) requested that the Secretary-General, in cooperation with the Organization of African Unity, convene an International Conference of Experts for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid in Southern Africa, to be held in Oslo in 1973. Resolution 2911 (XXVII) proclaimed the week beginning May 25, 1973, a Week of Solidarity with the Colonial Peoples of Southern Africa and Guinea (Bissau) and Cape Verde Fighting for Freedom, Independence, and Equal Rights.
The United States voted against Resolution 2908 and abstained on the other three resolutions. (Yearbook of the United Nations, 1972, pages 544–553; U.S. Participation in the United Nations, 1972, pages 182–183)