Trust Territories
These are territories governed by a particular system of international administration (trusteeship), implemented by conferring powers upon a specific State by the United Nations. The trusteeship system is linked to the mandate system, which it replaced: it, which must be framed within the trend toward the gradual abandonment of old colonial systems, is governed by particular international law (chs. 12 and 13 of the UN Charter).
The system's main purpose is to promote the advancement of the administered populations and their progress toward autonomy or independence; it is established through agreements between the States directly concerned and pertains to—or may pertain to—territories (excluding those of UN Member States): 1) previously subject to the mandate system of the League of Nations (in practice, only Class B and C mandates); 2) taken from enemy States as a result of the Second World War; 3) voluntarily placed under the system by the administering States. A series of international controls is provided for the proper functioning of the system; these are exercised almost exclusively by the organs of the United Nations: the General Assembly (which is replaced by the Security Council for so-called strategic areas), the Trusteeship Council, the Economic and Social Council; they are implemented through the so-called "questionnaire" addressed by the Trusteeship Council to the administering State and the latter's annual report; petitions from the administered populations; and periodic visits to the territories by special commissions. Each application of the trusteeship system is essentially temporary, as it must cease upon the attainment of autonomy or independence by the administered populations; however, it may be noted that nothing is explicitly established in this regard either by the UN Charter or—except in one case to be discussed below—by individual trusteeship agreements. To date, the following territories have been placed under trusteeship: British Cameroons, administering State: United Kingdom; French Cameroons, France; Pacific Islands, U.S.A.; Nauru Island, Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom; New Guinea, Australia; Ruanda-Urundi, Belgium; Western Samoa, New Zealand; Somalia, Italy; Tanganyika, United Kingdom; French Togo, France; British Togo, United Kingdom.
The application of the trusteeship system to former Italian Somalia is distinguished by the following main features: a) the exclusion of Italy from the drafting of the agreement, which was accompanied by a "Declaration of Constitutional Principles"; b) the creation of bodies, such as the Advisory Council (composed of three States: Egypt, Colombia, and the Philippines), with substantial control functions over the activities of the administering State; c) the temporary nature of the system: 10 years from the approval of the agreement by the UN General Assembly.
Some aspects of the system have raised important legal issues. Among others, the problems of the nature of trusteeship agreements and of the so-called "territorial sovereignty" must be noted.
On the first point: the trusteeship agreements submitted for approval to the UN General Assembly (or to the Security Council, limited to strategic areas) have been variously characterized. Briefly, it may be said—emphasizing the relativity of the terminology, variously understood even in domestic legal science from which it is borrowed, and setting aside the thesis that would identify an agreement whose parties would not be formed solely by the States concerned, but on one side by the latter and on the other by the United Nations—that, in relation to the aforementioned approval, the agreement has been considered as part of a complex act or as a bi- or plurilateral act subject to a condition.
On the second point: the discussions on the issue of territorial sovereignty raised at the time by the application of the mandate system of the League of Nations have been revived for trusteeship administrations. Noting here again how the solution changes depending on the meaning given to the term "territorial sovereignty" and, in particular, depending on whether it is considered as a real right over the territory or not, the main theses can be reduced to four. Attribution of sovereignty: 1) to the administering State (a thesis linked—but not exclusively—to the denial that territorial sovereignty consists of a real right); 2) to the United Nations; 3) to the local populations (a thesis linked to the conception of sovereignty as a real right and to the possibility of distinguishing in it a *modus iuris* from an *exercitium iuris*, the former belonging to the populations, the latter to the administering State); 4) to the States that, having disposal over the territory, consent to place it under trusteeship.
Trust territories must be distinguished from the so-called "non-self-governing territories." This latter designation refers to all former colonial territories dependent on UN Members without being subject to trusteeship. Chapter XI of the UN Charter, entitled precisely "Declaration regarding Non-Self-Governing Territories," imposes a series of obligations on the administering State, obligations that, according to part of the doctrine, are moral rather than legal. Finally, it must be noted that, according to a unanimous opinion, the principles of Chapter XI, due to their general value, also apply to trust territories.
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