A team of the United Nations decolonisation committee is visiting New Caledonia this week.
Kanak and French flags on Ouvea island. Photo: AFP
The fact-finding mission is in the French territory as preparations continue for an independence referendum later this year.
Last year, a UN team visited New Caledonia to observe the special French-led commissions, which update the roll of those allowed to vote in the plebiscite.
At the last meeting of the signatories to the Noumea Accord, it was agreed that there should be United Nations observers in place for the referendum.
New Caledonia, which has been French since 1853, could be the first French colony to win independence since Vanuatu did in 1980.