Republic of Palau

Republic of Palau Beluu er a Palau
Flag Coat of arms
Capital	Ngerulmud
Largest city	Koror
Demonym(s)	Palauan
Government	Presidential republic under a non-partisan democracy
• President	Surangel Whipps Jr
Area
• Total	459 km²
Population
• 2021 estimate	18,024

Palau, also called Belau, and officially the Republic of Palau is an island country in Oceania situated in the Pacific Ocean and is the western-most part of the Micronesia region. Palau is an archipelago consisting of about 340 islands, islets, and atolls.

Following the Second World War and until 1994, Palau was designated as part of a United Nations Strategic Trust Territory administered by the United States. After entering a "Compact of Free Association" (COFA) with the U.S. which went into effect in 1994, Palau has been considered as a sovereign nation in "free association" with the U.S., an agreement under which the U.S. has full authority over defense and security matters in Palau, including designating defense sites which Palau must make available, opening and closing Palau's territory to the military forces of other states, and restricting Palau from undertaking activities that the US considers incompatible with its security and defense prerogatives.

The U.S. Department of State has noted that people from Palau serve as volunteers in the U.S. armed forces at a higher rate per capita than from any U.S. state, and that Palau has one of the highest levels of voting coincidence with the U.S. at the United Nations.

History

By some estimations, human settlement in Palau began approximately 3,000 to 5,000 years ago, although estimations vary. The website of Palau's government states that the archipelago has been inhabited since the 4th millennium BC. Palauans engaged in the Micronesian trade system and constructed extensive earthwork complexes such as step-terraces.

Palau has experienced a series of colonizers claiming, occupying, administering, and competing for its territory: in the 19th century, Spain laid claim to Micronesia, which includes Palau. After Spain's defeat in the Spanish-American War, Spain sold Micronesia to Germany. Germany occupied the region until the islands were captured by Japan during the First World War. Japan then occupied and administered the islands under a League of Nations mandate, using the islands as a military outpost and economic colony. During the Second World War, major battles between Japanese and U.S. forces took place in Palau, with the U.S. eventually taking possession of the islands, administering them as part of the United Nations Trust Territory system until the 1990s.

In the 1970s, while preparing for future self-rule, a super-majority of Palauans passed a "nuclear-free" constitution, banning nuclear material from their territory, as concern over nuclear fallout and irradiation was a major issue in the Pacific where the U.S. was using Pacific islands as nuclear test sites, causing severe health and environmental consequences to local populations. Palau's nuclear-free constitution came into effect in 1981. However, as it conflicted with the U.S.'s strategic goals to store nuclear weapons there, the U.S. stalled negotiations for Palau's independence. While other nations which had formerly been part of the same trust territory group–namely, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and Federated States of Micronesia–were established as independent nations (after entering a Compact of Free Association with the U.S.), the U.S. refused to grant Palau its independence unless the nuclear-free provision was removed, forcing "plebiscite after plebiscite on the issue." During this period, proponents of the nuclear-free provision were violently suppressed, and Palau's first president, Haruo Remeliik, a proponent of the nuclear-free constitution, was assassinated.

In 2008 Palau, along with the USA, and its illegal puppet state Israel, was one of only 3 countries in the world that voted to continue the embargo of Cuba.

Human rights

In 2024, a group of student activists in Palau documented the environmental impacts and human rights violations caused by the U.S. militarization of their land, the findings of which they would go on to submit to United Nations independent human rights experts (the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples and the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment) in November 2024.

Among the activists' findings, collected as they spoke with communities in Palau, were that the military had undermined human rights, failed to inform indigenous communities about the land use's impacts, did not give them opportunity to provide or withhold consent for land use, and was "clearing huge swathes of pristine forest, destroying resources essential to community subsistence and well-being, and imperiling species of great cultural significance", with the military also violating Palau's laws by failing to do adequate environmental impact assessments and failing to obtain necessary permits for their projects, "in a show of deep disdain for Palau’s sovereignty".

The students asserted that they submitted the filing to protect their homeland, and are quoted in an article by Guam-based Blue Ocean Law, stating, "Belau is Our Home. Belau is Our Mother. It saddens us to see our environment being destroyed just for the use of a foreign power. As youth, we are the ones who will feel the consequences of the choices made today. That is why we feel that our voices should be heard in making these decisions." The activists submitted the filing on behalf of the Ebiil Society, an environmental organization in Palau, with assistance from Blue Ocean Law in submitting the filing. Ebiil Society founder Ann Singeo also commented on the military risk to Palau, saying, "I fear that our small island and our people may be used as a war shield. Definitely can make one feel insignificant and disposable, but that is not us. Women of Palau historically fought hard for this land and her people, by defending our values. We are the descendants of these strong women."