• Library Catalog
•  | 
• Circulars
•  | 
• Meetings
•  | 
• Employment
•  | 
• Press Releases
•  | 
• News
•  | 
• Lists
•  | 
• Staff Mail
•  | 
• Forum
•  | 

Who we are

• Our Member Countries and Territories
• Our Pacific Region
• Our Vision and Mission
• Our Donors
• Our Key Dates
• Our Headquarters
• SPC Support Programmes

SPC's History

Serving Pacific island communities

Adapting to changing needs

One of the oldest regional organisations in the world, SPC celebrated its 50th anniversary on 6 February 1997. It is a non-political, technical assistance and research body, fills a consultative and advisory role. SPC has constantly evolved, both reflecting and shaping the island regionalism that has built today's Pacific. Its capacity to adapt to the changing needs of both territories and independent island countries has enabled SPC to survive for more than half a century and will ensure its continuing role in the social and economic development of the Pacific Island region.
 

How SPC was founded

The South Pacific Commission, as it was formerly known, was founded in 1947 under the Canberra Agreement by the six ‘Participating Governments’ that administered territories in the Pacific: Australia, France, New Zealand, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Now all 22 Island countries and territories are full members, along with the five remaining founding powers (the Netherlands is no longer a member; the United Kingdom, which had earlier resigned, rejoined in 1998). Each member can exercise one vote at the Conference of the Pacific Community, although debates are usually resolved by the Pacific way of consensus (general agreement) rather than a vote.

Although the region features a third of the world’s languages, SPC meetings bring together representatives from all of the island countries and territories using just two: English and French. The bilingual nature of SPC is a great and necessary strength, and it was in establishing SPC that the region, as opposed to a collection of 7500 diverse islands, came to exist.

Changing membership

The first formal change to the Commission’s boundaries happened in November 1951, when the six Participating Governments amended the Canberra Agreement to add Guam and the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to the SPC area. Thus 91,000 Micronesians were included in the Commission’s territorial scope, and SPC extended its influence into the North Pacific.

The second change involved a much greater number of Pacific Islanders: in 1962, the Netherlands transferred administration of Netherlands New Guinea (now known as Irian Jaya), to Indonesia, moving a population of 728,000 outside the Pacific Island region.

Full Island members

No provision had been made in the Canberra Agreement for any additions to the six original Participating Governments. When New Zealand granted Western Samoa independence in 1962, it was technically removed from the Commission’s membership. An amending agreement, signed in London on 6 October 1964, named Western Samoa (the only independent island state at that time) and stated that any territory within SPC’s influence could become a full member if invited to do so by all the Participating Governments. Western Samoa became a full voting member of the Commission on 17 July 1965, and was followed by Nauru on 24 July 1969, and Fiji on 5 May 1971, when those Pacific Islands achieved independence.

The amending agreement also changed the voting procedure. Previously each member had had one vote, but the new system gave members one vote for each dependent territory, to be transferred to the territory after independence and accession as a full member. Therefore Australia had five votes, France, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States four each, and Western Samoa one when it joined the five remaining metropolitan countries. The newly independent island states were able to continue receiving assistance because even after acceding to the Canberra Agreement as Participating Governments, they remained under the scope of the Commission.

Blending the old and the new

The single greatest change to SPC’s membership occurred in 1983, at the 23rd South Pacific Conference in Saipan. At this meeting all associate members of the Commission joined the Participating Governments as full voting and contributing members of SPC. Thus a truly regional organisation came of age, with a comprehensive membership and equally distributed voting power regardless of political status.

At the beginning of 1996 the United Kingdom withdrew from SPC known at the time as the South Pacific Commission, but rejoined in 1998. The country withdrew again in January 2005.