De-Occupy the Kingdom of Hawai'i in Accordance with International Law

Aloha!  

We, the undersigned, who reside in and beyond the Hawaiian archipelago, support all Kanaka Maoli (aboriginal people of Hawai‘i), and other Hawaiian Kingdom citizens, calling for the de-occupation of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i by the United States of America.   

As allies and/or as Hawaiian Kingdom citizens, we urge President Barack Obama, Vice President Joseph Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, the Departments of the Interior and Justice, and other government branches and agencies of the U.S., including future high government officials, to begin the process of de-occupation of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, through existing agreements and international laws established for this purpose, particularly the 1893 Lili‘uokalani Agreement for U.S. President to administer Hawaiian Kingdom Law; the 1907 Hague Convention, IV; and 1949 Geneva Convention, IV.   

The facts of history, the rule of international law, the moral and ethical imperatives of justice, and the urgency of Hawai‘i’s condition after generations of occupation, require and demand this support from us and from the rest of the international community. We support all descendants of Hawaiian Kingdom subjects in their work to reclaim their independence as a nation and reestablish their government.  

Under the illegal, U.S. occupation of their homeland, Kanaka Maoli have endured cultural, spiritual, psychological and material conditions intended to force them to assimilate or disappear into the diaspora. The U.S. agenda in Hawai‘i includes the cover up of the illegal occupation, and erasure of Kanaka Maoli through attempts to annihilate their native language, land dispossession, ecocide, cultural genocide, and more.  

The true political plight of Kanaka Maoli has been intentionally ignored by the United States since it began its occupation in 1898. Every U.S. government attempt to remake these citizens of the Hawaiian Kingdom into a federally recognized aboriginal tribe of the United States is further proof of the crimes associated with the illegal takeover of the Hawaii in 1898. We are now calling for international awareness and widespread support for U.S. de-occupation as the necessary first step to restoration of an independent, sovereign Hawaiian nation.  

Whereas:  

The Kingdom of Hawai‘i was internationally recognized as an independent state on par with all other independent nations, including Great Britain and France (1843), and the United States (1844);  

The Kingdom of Hawai‘i was and is a declared neutral nation, committed to diplomacy in times of conflict, instead of the use military force;  

On January 17, 1893, U.S. military authorities landed marines from the USS Boston in Honolulu and committed a wrongful act of war, referred today herein as the illegal overthrow of the constitutional monarch, Queen Lili‘uokalani, and her government;  

The individuals responsible for the overthrow of the queen’s government forced the queen to sign a document of abdication after a period of solitary confinement (now widely acknowledged as a form of torture), and thus this document signed under duress has no legal validity. In addition, no constitutional leader of any country has the authority to surrender his/her country to any foreign power;

President Grover Cleveland investigated the overthrow and continued to recognize Queen Lili‘uokalani as the rightful constitutional sovereign of the Kingdom, and in fact carried out inter-state communications culminating in the Lili‘uokalani-Cleveland executive agreements;  

The illegal and illegitimate “Republic of Hawaii” attempted and failed twice to achieve U.S congressional support for a treaty intended to annex Hawai‘i to the United States of America;  

Hawaiian Kingdom citizens openly and vigorously opposed “annexation,” with over 90% of both Kanaka Maoli and non-aboriginal citizens signing petitions (referred to as the Ku‘e Petitions), that unambiguously declared to the government of the United States that they did not want to be part of the United States;  

In gross violation of its 1875 treaty with the Kingdom of Hawai‘i, as well as international law, the United States of America then claimed to “annex” Hawai‘i in 1898 through a congressional joint resolution that is strictly a domestic instrument that has no power to create U.S. jurisdiction outside of the U.S.;  

The United States of America began the illegal military occupation of Hawai‘i that continues to this day in 1898, using the Spanish American War as a pretext; Kanaka Maoli and non-aboriginal descendants of subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom continue to resist, through peaceful means, the illegal takeover of their country and subsequent fraudulent acts, such as the illegal so-called statehood vote in 1959, the military expansions throughout the archipelago, the illegal taking and selling of private and government land belonging to the citizens of the kingdom, and more.   U.S. Senate Bill 103-150, the Apology Resolution of 1993, acknowledged the U.S. complicity in the illegal overthrow, and committed the United States to an undetermined process of reconciliation with Hawaiians;  

This continuing occupation has resulted in grave and irreversible harm to Hawai‘i’s people, lands, waters (both oceanic and fresh), and aboriginal burials, cultural and sacred sites, through intentional use of military and corporate expansion into the most environmentally and culturally sensitive areas.  

And whereas Dr. Kamana‘opono Crabbe, Chief Executive Officer of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (a Hawai‘i “state” agency), wrote a letter on May 5, 2014 and asked the following questions of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry:  

“First, does the Hawaiian Kingdom, as a sovereign independent State, continue to exist as a subject of international law?  

Second, if the Hawaiian Kingdom continues to exist, do the sole-executive agreements bind the United States today?  

Third, if the Hawaiian Kingdom continues to exist and the sole-executive agreements are binding on the United States, what effect would such a conclusion have on United States domestic legislation, such as the Hawai‘i Statehood Act, 73 Stat. 4, and Act 195?”  

And whereas there has yet been no response or answer to these questions from Mr. Kerry, but only an accelerated, aggressive effort from the U.S. government to push for “federal recognition” of Kanaka Maoli as a Native American tribe through a hastily arranged series of Department of the Interior meetings instigated by the Obama Administration -- a strategy intended to further cover up all of the preceding facts as well as Dr. Crabbe’s questions;  

Therefore:  

We, the undersigned, support the descendants of subjects of the Hawaiian Kingdom who choose to exercise their rights under international laws that protect the continuance of independent states from illegal seizure by other more dominant and powerful states. We call on the United States of America to immediately cease its occupation of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i.  

We invite you to join us in extending our aloha for Hawai‘i and its people, in this most constructive and meaningful way. End the U.S. occupation of Hawai‘i now!  

Mahalo (thank you). Amy Marsh & Ku Ching.