ABSTRACT
The United Nations (UN) Trusteeship System is credited with introducing the right to petition. From its beginning, petitioners from Togoland stood out in their use of petitions demanding first the reunification of the Ewe people and later the reunification of French and British Togoland. Yet, France and Britain, seeking to incorporate French and British Togoland into the French Union and the British Commonwealth, respectively, suppressed the petition campaign. This chapter argues that through the deliberate postponement, bureaucratic overburdening of the review process as well as restrictive rules of procedure, the colonial powers have lastingly nullified the right to petition inscribed in the UN Charter.
