118 STAT. 4056 CONCURRENT RESOLUTIONS—JULY 12, 2004 Whereas during the United Nations trusteeship period the United States fulfilled its commitment to promote the progress of the Marshall Islands toward democratic self-government and self- determination, leading to the establishment of local self-govern- ment that culminated in a constitutional convention in which delegates representing the people of the Marshall Islands pro- posed that they be constituted as a self-governing nation; Whereas in accordance with the enabling measures adopted by the United States as administering power of the Marshall Islands, which encouraged and fully supported the emergence of the Mar- shall Islands as a duly constituted nation based on the freely expressed will of the people, in 1979 the people of the Marshall Islands adopted their own constitution and subsequently declared their form of government to be a republic; Whereas the Constitution of the Republic of the Marshall Islands established a parliamentary governmental system with separation of powers and a ‘‘Bill of Rights,’’ guaranteeing democracy and freedom for the Marshallese people based on the rule of law, limited government, and individual liberty; Whereas the United States and the duly constituted Government of the Republic of the Marshall Islands adopted a Compact of Free Association to define government-to-government relations between the United States and the Marshall Islands as two sovereign nations under mutually agreed terms upon termination of the United Nations trusteeship for the Marshall Islands; Whereas the promulgation of a national constitution made possible the termination of the United Nations trusteeship in 1986 and the emergence of the Republic of the Marshall Islands as a sovereign nation in free association with the United States under the Compact of Free Association, forming an alliance that pre- serves the close and special political, social, economic, and mili- tary relationship between the two countries that developed during the trusteeship period; Whereas the United States has no closer alliance with any nation or group of nations than it does with the Republic of the Marshall Islands under the Compact of Free Association, which continues the strategic partnership and role of the Marshall Islands in United States strategic programs based in the Marshall Islands, which began at the end of World War II and has continued under the trusteeship and Compact to promote the mutual secu- rity of the United States and the Marshall Islands; Whereas the Republic of the Marshall Islands is a model for transi- tion of formerly non-self-governing territory ravaged by war to a sovereign political status as a stable democracy, a success story for institution building and recovery from conflict not only for the Pacific region but throughout the world; Whereas in light of the shared history of the United States and the Republic of the Marshall Islands and special relations under the Compact of Free Association, it is entirely fitting for Congress to recognize the 25th anniversary of the adoption of the Constitu- tion of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, recalling the impor- tance of duly constituted self-government in the self-determina- tion process leading to national sovereignty for the Marshall Islands; and VerDate 11-MAY-2000 15:04 Nov 10, 2005 Jkt 029194 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 9796 Sfmt 6581 C:\STATUTES\2004\29194PT4.003 APPS10 PsN: 29194PT4
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