An international conference on the right of return, self-determination, colonialism, and displacement was held on June 24 at the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.
The event, titled “The Right of Return and Self-Determination: Double Standards and Selective Approaches,” was organized by the Baku Initiative Group and brought together human rights defenders, legal experts, refugee representatives, civil society groups, and delegates from affected communities.
Discussions focused on the right of people to return safely and with dignity to their historical homelands, the protection of cultural and religious heritage, and the role of United Nations mechanisms in addressing displacement, discrimination, and unresolved colonial questions.
The conference also examined self-determination for peoples still living under colonial structures and the continued push to place non-self-governing territories more firmly on the United Nations decolonization agenda.
A delegation from the Dutch Caribbean brought the perspective of the islands into that international discussion.
Representing St. Martin and the wider Sunny Isles, ONESXM Association’s Alston Lourens addressed the conference with a speech titled “Permission Is Not Freedom.”
In the address, Lourens examined how colonialism in the Caribbean may have changed its language, while control can still remain through financial oversight, limited autonomy, and constitutional arrangements where final authority rests elsewhere.
His central question was simple:
Who truly holds the final power?
Here is Alston Lourens of ONESXM Association.