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<div class="header reader-header reader-show-element"> <font
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href="https://www.nlg.org/nlg-calls-upon-us-to-immediately-comply-with-international-humanitarian-law-in-its-illegal-occupation-of-the-hawaiian-islands/">https://www.nlg.org/nlg-calls-upon-us-to-immediately-comply-with-international-humanitarian-law-in-its-illegal-occupation-of-the-hawaiian-islands/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">NLG Calls Upon US to Immediately Comply
with International Humanitarian Law in its Illegal Occupation
of the Hawaiian Islands</h1>
<div class="meta-data">
<div class="reader-estimated-time">January 13, 2020<br>
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<p>Contact: <span><span><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hawaiiankingdom@nlginternational.org">hawaiiankingdom@nlginternational.org</a>
</span></span></p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.nlg.org/">National Lawyers
Guild</a> (NLG), the oldest and largest progressive
bar association in the United States, calls upon the
United States to immediately begin to comply with
international humanitarian law in its prolonged and
illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Kingdom since 1893.
As the longest running belligerent occupation of a
foreign country in the history of international
relations, the United States has been in violation of
international law for over a century.</p>
<p><strong>THE HAWAIIAN KINGDOM AS A SOVEREIGN AND
INDEPENDENT STATE</strong></p>
<p>On November 28, 1843, Great Britain and France jointly
recognized the <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/blog/national-holiday-independence-day-november-28/">Hawaiian
Kingdom</a> as a sovereign and independent State,
which was followed by formal recognition by the United
States on July 6, 1844. By 1893, the Hawaiian Kingdom <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/blog/hawaiian-legations-and-consulates-in-1893/">maintained</a>
over 90 legations (embassies) and consulates throughout
the world, to include a legation in Washington, D.C.,
and consulates in the cities of New York, San Francisco,
Philadelphia, San Diego, Boston, Portland, Port Townsend
and Seattle. The United States also maintained a
legation and consulate in Honolulu.</p>
<p>The Hawaiian Kingdom also held <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/treaties.shtml">treaties</a>
with the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Belgium, Bremen,
Denmark, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hamburg, Italy,
Japan, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Russia, Samoa,
Spain, Switzerland, the unified Kingdoms of Sweden and
Norway, and the United States. It was also a member of
the Universal Postal Union.</p>
<p>As a constitutional monarchy, the kingdom <a
href="http://neatoday.org/2018/10/13/us-occupation-of-hawaii/">provided</a>
universal healthcare for the aboriginal Hawaiian
population since 1859 with the establishment of Queen’s
Hospital, and it became the fifth country in the world
to provide compulsory education for all youth in 1841.
This predated compulsory education in the United States
by seventy-seven years and its literacy rate was
universal and second to Scotland. Also, between 1880 and
1887, a study abroad program was launched where 18 young
Hawaiian subjects attended schools in the United States,
Great Britain, which included Scotland, Italy, Japan and
China where they studied engineering, law, foreign
language, medicine, military science, engraving,
sculpture, and music.</p>
<p><strong>PRESIDENT GROVER CLEVELAND’S MESSAGE TO THE
CONGRESS IN DECEMBER 18, 1893</strong></p>
<p>After completing an investigation into the United
States role in the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom
government on January 17, 1893, President Cleveland
apprised the Congress of his findings and conclusions.
In his <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Cleveland's_Message_(12.18.1893).pdf">message</a>
to the Congress, he stated, “And so it happened that on
the 16th day of January, 1893, between four and five
o’clock in the afternoon, a detachment of marines from
the United States steamer Boston, with two pieces of
artillery, landed at Honolulu. The men, upwards of 160
in all, were supplied with haversacks and canteens, and
were accompanied by a hospital corps with stretchers and
medical supplies. This military demonstration upon the
soil of Honolulu was of itself an act of war.” He
concluded, that “the military occupation of Honolulu by
the United States on the day mentioned was wholly
without justification, either as an occupation by
consent or as an occupation necessitated by dangers
threatening American life and property.”</p>
<p>This invasion coerced Queen Lili‘uokalani, executive
monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, to conditionally
surrender to the superior power of the United States
military, where she stated, “Now, to avoid any collision
of armed forces and perhaps the loss of life, I do,
under this protest, and impelled by said force, yield my
authority until such time as the Government of the
United States shall, upon the facts being presented to
it, undo the action of its representatives and reinstate
me in the authority which I claim as the constitutional
sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands.” The President
acknowledged, that by “an act of war…the Government
of…friendly and confiding people has been overthrown.”</p>
<p>Through executive mediation between the Queen and the
new U.S. Minister to the Hawaiian Islands, Albert
Willis, that lasted from November 13, 1893 through
December 18, 1893, an agreement of peace was reached.
According to the executive agreement, by exchange of
notes, the President committed to restoring the Queen as
the constitutional sovereign, and the Queen agreed,
after being restored, to grant a full pardon to the
insurgents. Political wrangling in the Congress,
however, blocked President Cleveland from carrying out
his obligation of restoration of the Queen.</p>
<p><strong>LIMITATION OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION
AND LAWS</strong></p>
<p>Five years later, at the height of the Spanish-American
War, President Cleveland’s successor, William McKinley,
signed a congressional joint resolution of annexation on
July 7, 1898, unilaterally seizing the Hawaiian Islands
for military purposes. In the <em>Lotus</em> case, the
Permanent Court of International Justice stated that
“the first and foremost restriction imposed by
international law upon a State is that…it may not
exercise its power in any form in the territory of
another State.”</p>
<p>This rule of international law was acknowledged by the
Supreme Court in United <em>States v. Curtiss-Wright,
Corp.</em> (1936), when the court stated, “Neither the
Constitution nor the laws passed in pursuance of it have
any force in foreign territory unless in respect of our
own citizens, and operations of the nation in such
territory must be governed by treaties, international
understandings and compacts, and the principles of
international law.” In 1988, the U.S. Department of
Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/1988_Opinion_OLC.pdf">concluded</a>,
it is “unclear which constitutional power Congress
exercised when it acquired Hawaii by joint resolution.”</p>
<p>Under international law, “a disguised annexation aimed
at destroying the independence of the occupied State,
represents a clear violation of the rule preserving the
continuity of the occupied State (Marek, <em>Identity
and Continuity of States in Public International Law</em>,
2<sup>nd</sup> ed. 110 (1968)).”</p>
<p>Despite the limitations of United States legislation,
the Congress went ahead and enacted the <a
href="https://www.loc.gov/law/help/statutes-at-large/56th-congress/session-1/c56s1ch339.pdf">Territorial
Act</a> (1900) changing the name of the governmental
infrastructure to the Territory of Hawai‘i. Fifty-nine
years later, the Congress changed the name of the
Territory of Hawai‘i to the State of Hawai‘i in 1959
under the <a
href="https://ecos.fws.gov/ServCat/DownloadFile/33456?Reference=33811">Statehood
Act</a>. The governmental infrastructure of the
Hawaiian Kingdom continued as the governmental
infrastructure of the State of Hawai‘i.</p>
<p>According to Professor Matthew Craven in his 2002 <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Opinion_Continuity_HK_Craven_RCI.pdf">legal
opinion</a> for the <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/">Hawaiian Council
of Regency</a> concluded, “That authority exercised by
[the United States] over Hawai‘i is not one of
sovereignty i.e. that the [United States] has no legally
protected ‘right’ to exercise that control and that it
has no original claim to the territory of Hawai‘i or
right to obedience on the part of the Hawaiian
population. Furthermore, the extension of [United
States] laws to Hawai‘i, apart from those that may be
justified by reference to the law of (belligerent)
occupation would be contrary to the terms of
international law.”</p>
<p><strong>INTERNATIONAL HUMANITARIAN LAW OBLIGATES THE
UNITED STATES TO ADMINISTER THE LAWS OF THE HAWAIIAN
KINGDOM</strong></p>
<p>Despite over a century of occupation, international
humanitarian law, otherwise known as the laws of war,
obligates the United States to administer the laws of
the occupied State. In 2018, United Nations Independent
Expert, Dr. Alfred deZayas, sent a <a
href="https://jenruggles.com/wp-content/uploads/Dr_deZayas_Memo_2_25_2018.pdf">communication</a>
from Geneva to the State of Hawai‘i that read:</p>
<p>“As a professor of international law, the former
Secretary of the UN Human Rights Committee, co-author of
[the] book, The United Nations Human Rights Committee
Case Law 1977-2008, and currently serving as the UN
Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and
equitable international order, I have come to understand
that the lawful political status of the Hawaiian Islands
is that of a sovereign nation-state in continuity; but a
nation-state that is under a strange form of occupation
by the United States resulting from an illegal military
occupation and a fraudulent annexation. As such,
international laws (the Hague and Geneva Conventions)
require that governance and legal matters within the
occupied territory of the Hawaiian Islands must be
administered by the application of the laws of the
occupied state (in this case, the Hawaiian Kingdom), not
the domestic laws of the occupier (the United States).”</p>
<p>Violations of the provisions of the 1907 Hague
Regulations and the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention are
war crimes. Professor William Schabas, recognized expert
in international criminal law, determined in a 2019 <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Opinion_War-Crimes_Schabas_RCI.pdf">legal
opinion</a> for the <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/blog/hawaiian-royal-commission-of-inquiry/">Hawaiian
Royal Commission of Inquiry</a>, that war crimes have
and continue to be committed in the Hawaiian Islands
since January 17, 1893. He states, “In addition to
crimes listed in applicable treaties, war crimes are
also recognized under customary international law.
Customary international law applies to States regardless
of whether they have ratified relevant treaties. The
customary law of war crimes is thus applicable to the
situation in Hawai‘i. Many of the war crimes set out in
the first Additional Protocol and in the Rome Statute
codify customary international law and are therefore
applicable to the United States despite its failure to
ratify the treaties.” And according to Professor
Lenzerini in his 2019 <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Opinion_Human_Rights_Lenzerini_RCI.pdf">legal
opinion</a> for the Royal Commission of Inquiry, that
violations of human rights in the Hawaiian Kingdom
“would first of all need to be treated as war crimes,
which are primarily to be considered under the lens of
international criminal law.”</p>
<p><strong>CONCEALING THE ILLEGAL OCCUPATION THROUGH
AMERICANIZATION—DENATIONALIZATION</strong></p>
<p>How could such a travesty have gone unnoticed until
now? The answer is obliteration of Hawaiian national
consciousness through a process of denationalization.
Predating the policy of Germanization in the German
occupied State of Serbia from 1915-1918, a formal policy
of <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/1906_Patriotic_Exercises.pdf">Americanization</a>
was initiated in 1906 that sought to obliterate the
national consciousness of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the
minds of school children throughout the islands.
Classroom instruction was in English and if the children
spoke Hawaiian they were severely punished. The Hawaiian
Gazette <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/Patriotic_Program_Article.pdf">reported</a>,
“It will be remembered that at the time of the
celebration of the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, an
agitation was begun looking to a better observance of
these notable national days in the schools, as tending
to inculcate patriotism in a school population that
needed that kind of teaching, perhaps, more than the
mainland children do.”</p>
<p>In 1907, a reporter from New York’s Harper’s Weekly
visited Ka‘iulani public school in Honolulu and
showcased the <a
href="https://hawaiiankingdom.org/pdf/1907_Harpers_Weekly.pdf">seeds
of indoctrination</a>. The reporter wrote:</p>
<p>“At the suggestion of Mr. Babbitt, the principal, Mrs.
Fraser, gave an order, and within ten seconds all of the
614 pupils of the school began to march out upon the
great green lawn which surrounds the building.… Out upon
the lawn marched the children, two by two, just as
precise and orderly as you find them at home. With the
ease that comes of long practice the classes marched and
counter-marched until all were drawn up in a compact
array facing a large American flag that was dancing in
the northeast trade-wind forty feet above their heads.…
‘Attention!’ Mrs. Fraser commanded. The little regiment
stood fast, arms at side, shoulders back, chests out,
heads up, and every eye fixed upon the red, white and
blue emblem that waived protectingly over them.
‘Salute!’ was the principal’s next command. Every right
hand was raised, forefinger extended, and the six
hundred and fourteen fresh, childish voices chanted as
one voice: ‘We give our heads and our hearts to God and
our Country! One Country! One Language! One Flag!’”</p>
<p>The word “inculcate” imports force such as to convince,
implant, or to indoctrinate. Brainwashing is its
colloquial term. Within three generations, the national
consciousness of the Hawaiian Kingdom was effectively
obliterated from the minds of the Hawaiian people.</p>
<p><strong>THE RISE OF NATIONAL CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE
HAWAIIAN KINGDOM</strong></p>
<p>The year 1993, which marked the 100th anniversary of
the American invasion and occupation, began the
resurgence of Hawaiian national consciousness. It was
also the year that the Congress enacted a <a
href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/STATUTE-107/pdf/STATUTE-107-Pg1510.pdf">joint
resolution</a> apologizing for the United States role
in illegally overthrowing the government of the Hawaiian
Kingdom. Six years later on November 8, 1999, the
Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague accepted a
dispute between Lance Larsen, a Hawaiian subject, and
the restored Hawaiian government—the Council of Regency
(<em><a href="https://pca-cpa.org/en/cases/35/">Larsen
v. Hawaiian Kingdom</a>)</em>. Larsen alleged the
Council of Regency was legally liable for “allowing the
unlawful imposition of American municipal laws over the
claimant’s person within the territorial jurisdiction of
the Hawaiian Kingdom.” The Regency’s position was that
it was not liable and that the United States was
responsible under international humanitarian law. Due to
the United States decision not to participate in the
arbitral proceedings after being <a
href="https://www.alohaquest.com/arbitration/letter_000303.htm">invited</a>
by the Regency and Larsen’s counsel, Larsen was unable
to maintain his suit against the Hawaiian government.</p>
<p>These proceedings, however, drew international
attention to the American occupation which prompted the
NLG’s International Committee to form the <a
href="https://nlginternational.org/hawaiian-kingdom-subcommittee/">Hawaiian
Kingdom Subcommittee</a> in March of 2019. The
Subcommittee “provides legal support to the
movement demanding that the U.S., as the occupier,
comply with international humanitarian and human rights
law within Hawaiian Kingdom territory, the occupied.
This support includes organizing delegations and working
with the United Nations, the International Committee of
the Red Cross, and NGOs addressing U.S. violations of
international law and the rights of Hawaiian nationals
and other Protected Persons.”</p>
<p>In December of 2019, the NLG’s membership voted and
passed a <a
href="https://www.nlg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Hawaiian-Subcommittee-Resolution-Final.pdf">resolution</a>
where “the National Lawyers Guild calls upon the United
States of America immediately to begin to comply with
international humanitarian law in its prolonged and
illegal occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.”</p>
<ul>
<li>NLG strongly condemns the prolonged and illegal
occupation of the Hawaiian Islands.</li>
<li>NLG also condemns the unlawful presence and
maintenance of the United States Indo-Pacific Command
with its 118 military sites throughout the Hawaiian
Islands, which has caused the islands to be targeted
for nuclear strike by North Korea, China and Russia.</li>
<li>NLG calls for the United States to immediately
comply with international humanitarian law and begin
to administer the laws of the Hawaiian Kingdom as the
occupied State.</li>
<li>NLG calls on the legal and human rights community to
view the United States presence in the Hawaiian
Islands through the prism of international law and to
roundly condemn it as an illegal occupation under
international law.</li>
<li>NLG supports the Hawaiian Council of Regency, who
represented the Hawaiian Kingdom at the Permanent
Court of Arbitration, in its efforts to seek
resolution in accordance with international law as
well as its strategy to have the State of Hawai‘i and
its Counties comply with international humanitarian
law as the administration of the Occupying State.</li>
<li>NLG calls on all United Nations member States and
non-member States to not recognize as lawful a
situation created by a serious violation of
international law, and to not render aid or assistance
in maintaining the unlawful situation. As an
internationally wrongful act, all States shall
cooperate to ensure the United States complies with
international humanitarian law and consequently bring
to an end the unlawful occupation of the Hawaiian
Islands.</li>
</ul>
<p><em>The National Lawyers Guild, whose membership
includes lawyers, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers,
and law students, was formed in 1937 as the United
States’ first racially-integrated bar association to
advocate for the protection of constitutional, human
and civil rights.</em></p>
<p># # #</p>
<p>Related:</p>
<ul>
<li><em>Guild Notes, </em>July 2019: <a
href="https://www.nlg.org/wp-admin/post-new.php">NLG
International Committee Announces New Hawaiian
Kingdom Subcommittee</a></li>
<li><a
href="https://www.nlg.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Hawaiian-Subcommittee-Resolution-Final.pdf"
target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Resolution
Against Illegal Occupation of Hawaiian Islands</a></li>
</ul>
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