KE AUPUNI UPDATE - SEPTEMBER 2025
A Tale of Two (UN) Cities
I just spent ten days attending the 60th Session of the Human Rights Council at the UN Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Most people don’t know that there are two primary UN headquarters. There’s the iconic one in New York where the General Assembly and the Security Council and their related committees meet. I’ll get back to that in a moment.
Then there is the UNHQ in Geneva where the various Human Rights bodies meet, along with the World Trade Organization, the World Health Organization, the International Labor Organization, the World Intellectual Properties Organization and a dozen other UN-related organizations are headquartered. It is a massive operation with the main campus being the impressive 114 acre estate of the former League of Nations.
It is there that we have concentrated most of our attention, because the organs of the UN, particularly the Human Rights bodies, are most approachable and receptive to our issues. The climate there is more relaxed and the diplomats from the UN member countries are much more accessible. In other words, you can sit and talk-story with the ambassadors and other leaders from foreign countries much easier and casually than you can in New York.
Over the past 17 years I have attended many meetings of various UN bodies in Geneva. I have been on dozens of panels and given dozens of interventions and filed many reports at the Human Rights Council and other treaty bodies. Last week Routh Bolomet and I made an hour-long parallel-event multi-media presentation at the Human Rights Council on the situation of Hawaii. It was well-received.
The international press at the UN in Geneva have also been very kind to giving our story coverage and exposure. Over the past 15 years, there have been many articles in magazines, newspapers, and on-line journals about Hawaii’s struggle for independence.
I am presently as the UN in New York. The September 9th 2025 opening of the United Nations General Assembly marked the the 80th year of the UN’s founding. Some of you may have watched the speeches made by world leaders attending the UN General Assembly over the past two weeks.
The office that I use when in New York is directly across the street from the UN General Assembly building. With world leaders in attendance, needless to say, security is extreme. For two weeks, streets are cordoned off with security checkpoints for blocks around the UN. No one goes in or out of the area without proper security passes. From my 8th floor window, I can watch the arrival of the limousines dropping off world leaders to enter the General Assembly Hall. I can also see the security snipers on the rooftops of the GA Hall at my eye-level.
What we have been doing in New York is preparing the way for the General Assembly to review two actions that it took regarding Hawaii: First in 1946 when it accepted Hawaii to be on a list of “non-self-governing territories” to be decolonized and second, when it accepted the 1959 US report that Hawaiians had willingly consented for Hawaii to become a state of the United States.
The outcome of these reviews of the UN’s actions will show them to be in error and thus, invalidate the claim that Hawaii is part of the United States and confirm the fact that the Hawaiian Kingdom is a sovereign, independent nation in continuity.
Ultimately our case will be played out at the UN General Assembly in New York, but it will be because all the groundwork laid out at the UN in Geneva.
Aloha ʻĀina —
“Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station.” — Queen Liliʻuokalani
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono.
The sovereignty of the land is perpetuated in righteousness.
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For the latest news and developments about our progress at the United Nations in both New York and Geneva, tune in to Free Hawaii News at 7 PM, the first Friday of each month on ʻŌlelo Television, Channel 53.
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Malama Pono,
Leon Siu
Hawaiian National
