Lt. Gov. Joshua Tenorio told a United Nations committee that federal courts, which have struck down Guam's plebiscite law as racially biased because voting would be exclusive to native inhabitants of Guam, have not been the beacon of fairness.

"The judicial system of our administering power has not played the leading role for civil rights and human rights on this issue, despite providing justice for other groups," said Tenorio, who had a lot to unpack in the 10 minutes he was given to address the UN's Special Political and Decolonization Committee on Oct. 10 in New York City. Tenorio has just returned from a two-week trip to New York City and Washington, D.C.

He said Guam cases have been decided based on case law dating back to more than a century ago – "at a time when the U.S. political system was shrouded in racial ideology."

Tenorio appeared before the committee alongside governor's Chief of Staff Tony Babauta. The lieutenant governor criticized the federal courts for forbidding the use of public funds for a plebiscite on Guam's political status based on a voter registry of native inhabitants of Guam, who include CHamoru people. An Air Force veteran who tried to register to vote in the plebiscite was turned down, triggering the federal lawsuit.

"And, most recently, the administering power’s court system has used their federal judicial system to interfere with our process and impede our progress toward decolonization by preventing the public expenditure of funds to advance a plebiscite pursuant to Guam law," Tenorio said.

Guam’s native inhabitant population, "which includes the indigenous CHamoru people, have the political distinction of being the subject of authority transferred from our Spanish colonizers to the United States by the Treaty of Paris," he said.

Guam's native inhabitants were denied the right to self-determination, despite being enfranchised to do so in a popular referendum of all Guam voters more than three decades ago, Tenorio said.

"The historical injustices imposed upon Guam’s native inhabitants, including the indigenous CHamoru people, have not been acknowledged or resolved. ... Guam’s native inhabitants have suffered from historic injustices as a result of their colonization and dispossession of their lands, territories, and resources, thus preventing them from exercising, in particular, their right to development, in accordance with their own needs and interests," Tenorio stated, in part.

Status quo

He said Guam's status quo "is unacceptable and it has been the policy of our government to seek change."

Status quo means Guam will remain under the authority of a "distant bureaucracy," Tenorio said – referring to policymakers in Washington, D.C., while federal programs and services are applied unevenly to Guam.

Guam's proposed plebiscite does not include the status quo as an option. It does include statehood, free association with the United States and independence.

Tenorio said territories like Guam are "owned by – but not a part of – the United States."

He also said the government of Guam has made it a priority to ask the federal government to return more than 3,000 acres of land to the local government.

"One such parcel of land is in Litekyan, the location of a controversial future military live-firing range," Tenorio said.

Ritidian, or Litekyan, covers the Guam National Wildlife Refuge, a federally designated area that protects plants, animals and marine life. The military plans to close off part of Ritidian from public access as a safety buffer zone during times when a planned live-fire training range complex on the adjacent Northwest Field on Andersen Air Force Base will be in use. The military has said there will be no construction within the wildlife refuge.

"In the case of the live-firing range construction in Litekyan, we have witnessed the unearthing of cultural artifacts and the displacement of endangered species. The desecration of our lands and threats posed to our environment are of top concern," Tenorio said.