Polynesia put on UN decolonisation list The UN General Assembly has put French Polynesia on the global body's decolonisation list. THE UN General Assembly has put French Polynesia on the global body's decolonisation list at a meeting boycotted by France. The resolution, passed on Friday by consensus in the 193-member assembly, was called for by the Solomon Islands and other Pacific states who back the Pacific territory's pro-independence parties. The vote places French Polynesia on the UN decolonisation list along with 16 other territories across the world, including the British-ruled Falkland islands and the US Virgin Islands. The resolution "affirms the right of the people of French Polynesia to self-determination and independence." It calls on the French government to "facilitate rapid progress" towards self-determination. Though the move is largely symbolic, Britain, the United States, Germany and The Netherlands all disassociated themselves from the consensus vote. France sent a letter to other UN members on Thursday announcing it would not be taking part in the debate. "The right to self-determination cannot be exercised against the will of the concerned populations," said the French mission to the UN in the letter. Polynesia's pro-independence party asked for the territory to be put back on the UN list when it controlled the government in 2011. But the pro-independence lost an election this month and the government is now controlled by a party that backs the existing autonomy granted by France. The UN vote was held on the day that independence leader Oscar Temaru handed over the presidency to the pro-autonomy Gaston Flosse. The territory's assembly passed a resolution on Wednesday calling for the UN vote to be postponed. France annexed different parts of Polynesia during the 19th century. The territory of about 275,000 people is best known now for tourist island of Tahiti and for the French nuclear tests carried out there up to the mid-1990s.