By 1991, there were 17 Territories left on the United Nations list of Non-Self-Governing Territories, the majority being small island Territories in the Caribbean, the Pacific and the Atlantic, and so the United Nations declared the first International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism.
到1991年，联合国非自治领土名单上还有17个领土——大多数是加勒比、太平洋和大西洋的小岛屿领土。