PICARDO SAYS IN HIS UN SPEECH, "TO FELIPE SIXTH OF SPAIN, GIBRALTAR OFFERS A HAND OF FRIENDSHIP".
by Dominique Searle at the UN in New York Pics: Johnny Bugeja
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and the Gibraltar delegation are pictured above arriving at the United Nations in New York yesterday ahead of his address to the Special Committee on Decolonisation.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo arrived at the United Nations building on 1st Avenue, New York yesterday in the morning sunshine shaking a cocktail of bitter and sweet messages for the ambassadors of the Committee of 24. As they took their seats yesterday to - again - listen in silence to territories big and small make their pleas over the complex reasons for stagnation at the bottom of the UN delisting pile, he challenged their fitness for purpose.
The move drew an unprecedented and from the heart reaction from the visibly upset chairman Xavier Lasso Mendoza who urged patience and said that there was no easy task for the C24 and it could not simply act alone.
But Mr Picardo also opened a window of hope that the new King of Spain, Felipe, who is being crowned this week, will gesture a new era in respect of the Gibraltar claim.
And he also signalled the Rock’s desire for genuine dialogue supporting the UK’s proposals for talks “avoiding the pitfalls of lateralisms”.
“We seek to respect Spain and to be respected by Spain as a friendly and permanently distinct neighbour who can work closely with our large neighbour to the North as we already seek to do with our similar neighbour to the South.”
“To Felipe the Sixth of Spain, Gibraltar offers a hand of friendship and respect as neighbours and supporters of democracy. This new Head of State must know that we seek only peace, understanding and co-operation,” said Mr Picardo.
“Let us never fall for the negative, destructive force of futile and purile nationalism which feeds no-one but the dinosaurs who prefer to re-run the long lost battles of yesterday.
Let us prioritise dialogue.
We remain strongly committed to the trilateral process of dialogue, as the United Kingdom has also repeatedly said it is. Let us grab opportunities for such dialogue in a manner that does not compromise any attendant party.”
Foreign Secretary William Hague has, Mr Picardo told the forum, been imaginative in “seeking to avoid the pitfalls of lateralism by proposing a parallel ad hoc dialogue on matters of mutual interest, where the parties present would be those with relevant Constitutional competences.”
But if each year has brought an alternate wave of appeal and optimism to be followed by despair and anger with the C24, this year did not spare the UN diplomats, less still the chairman of the C24.
Mr Picardo took up the response from last year’s chair that it was doing strictly what the mandate allows. Yesterday he told them that they have the mandate to start assisting Gibraltar and to defend its right to self-determination now.
What they were not, he said forcefully, is doing what they should.
“The sound of this Committee’s silence resonates through the generations of Gibraltarians who have been denied their right to emerge from the de jure colonialism that we have long ago escaped from de facto.”
“The sound of your silence speaks to an organisation no longer fit for purpose; no longer able to discharge the functions for which it was established in a harder but much more idealistic world in the exciting times that have seen the numbers of people living in listed territories reduce from 750m to just over 2m.”
LAND GRABS
Nor are they there to deal with “international conveyancing”, a reference to the territorial claim which he said is a matter he is happy to test in the right place – the International Court of Justice. This he stressed is about people, not land.
Mr Picardo complained that now, in 2014, despite the fact that we are both part of the European Union – Spain uses “the same trumped-up excuses to impede traffic flow across the frontier.”
The Chief Minister, accompanied by his deputy Dr Joseph Garcia and a team of officials, listed the complaints made to the C24 by letter of the incursions by Spain into Gibraltar waters and also the effect on Spanish workers and people generally.
“Spain makes mothers, children, the old, the infirm queue for hours as a result of unnecessary sporadic pedestrian controls. There is no possible justification for their actions; despite even the most exaggerated concerns about the arbitrage in price in respect of some commodities. Gibraltar also suffers from undeclared imports; but all our controls are proportional and designed to avoid causing nuisance to people crossing the frontier between our nations.”
The actions created embittered relations, said Mr Picardo.
“I have no doubt that, one day, a more modern Spanish administration will look back on such behaviour with deep regret,” he said with dry optimism adding that such measures do nothing to enhance the reputation of Spain in seeking temporary membership of the Security Council.
INVITE
Mr Picardo revealed that this autumn will see a symposium in Gibraltar on self-determination and he invited the Committee’s chairman to speak at this or to send a delegate from the C24 to do so. He also asked it to hold a future seminar on the Rock of the type attended by Joe Bossano MP last month in Fiji.
But the underlying message from Gibraltar could not be clearer – “Gibraltar will never be Spanish”.
“We say clearly that we do not seek to be wooed for an eventual take over that would amount to a re-colonisation. No amount of wooing will ever persuade us to surrender our right to our land or will ever make us forget the way in which we have been treated for over half a century. But we also say clearly that this does not dampen our desire for a mature, productive and mutually beneficial dialogue as neighbours,” he said.
He closed calling on the C24 chairman, the Ecuador ambassador to the UN, Xavier Lasso Mendoza, to “support Gibraltar with the things that are in your power: a visit; attendance at our symposium; organisation of one of your next seminars in our territory; or even by seeking – at last - an Advisory Opinion from the ICJ on our right to self determination.”
“Support us because that is what you are created to do – or tell us why you won’t without pretending that you can’t.”
*******
UN Committee of 24
Self-Determination for Gibraltar Group
16th June 2014
Dennis Matthews
Mr Chairman I would, first of all, like to thank you for the opportunity you have afforded me of addressing this Committee.
The Self-Determination for Gibraltar Group, of which I am Chairman, has been in existence for almost 25 years and it was set up to seek recognition of Gibraltar’s right to self-determination leading to decolonisation and delisting. All Gibraltarians subscribe to democratic principles and, based on that premise, I can safely say that all Gibraltarians are convinced that we have the right to self-determine our political future and that of our land and during the last quarter of a century we have made considerable progress in achieving recognition of this right, not least, of course, here at the United Nations itself.
Over the more than 300 years that Gibraltar has been British there has been a gradual progression, culminating in our 2006 Constitution , which has brought about a level of self-government which, in the view of Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom and others, has already established a decolonised status for Gibraltar. This may well be so, Mr Chairman, but regrettably, we have been unable, up till now, to elicit an opinion from any body here at the United Nations as to whether this view is correct or not and if it is not what changes might need to be made to achieve decolonisation. This in spite of the fact that a copy of our present Constitution was presented to this very Committee asking precisely for an opinion on whether it met your decolonisation criteria or not and this has been followed up by repeated requests for an opinion by Gibraltar delegations, all of which have fallen on deaf ears. We naturally find this extremely disappointing and I have to ask myself why this is so, Mr Chairman. Why is your Committee unwilling or unable to make a move or even a comment to help guide Gibraltar towards decolonisation?
In any event, Mr Chairman, I would like to say that I am somewhat puzzled by the decolonisation fervour which seems to grip certain sectors of the United Nations with declarations about Final Decades of Decolonisation (with the present one being the third one, by the way) which would seem to give a great urgency to the process of decolonisation, but which appears to come to an abrupt standstill when it comes to the question of Gibraltar which seems to have been relegated by this Committee, and others at the UN, to a state of limbo.
The fact is, Mr Chairman, that Colonial Empires ceased to exist a long time ago. Excluding Western Sahara, which is a case on its own, what are we talking about here in the context of the Final Decade of Decolonisation? We are talking about a number of mostly island communities ranging in population from the 210,000 of French Polynesia to a population of just 50 in Pitcairn. I do not believe that any of these communities are being exploited or are having their resources plundered to enrich their administering states as so often happened in the shameful era of the great Colonial
2
Empires and which would justify the UN’s expressions of urgency for their decolonisation. In fact I would venture to suggest that the boot is now on the other foot and that it is these small communities that are all now in some measure dependent on their administering state, whether it be in terms of defence, foreign affairs, economic aid or any other area. And it is right that this should be so, Mr Chairman. I believe that it is right that the old Colonial Empires, having taken so much from their colonies in the past, should now give something back to those small territories that need it. However, I believe that it is still of paramount importance that those territories that have a genuine desire to achieve a decolonised status, such as Gibraltar, should be given, by this Committee all the assistance required to achieve this objective in keeping with your UN mandate.
In this context, Mr Chairman, I have to tell you that the position of this Committee and the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (4th Committee) appears to me to be both illogical and contradictory. Article I of Chapter I of the United Nations Charter which sets out ‘The Purposes of the United Nations’ in Point 2 states and I quote:
“to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.”
This principle was ratified and further clarified by way of Section 2 of Resolution 1514 (XV) which states and I quote:
“All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Furthermore, Resolution 2231(XXI) itself recalls and demands implementation of Resolution 1514 (XV) thereby confirming application of the right of self-determination to all non-self-governing territories.
It should be clear to everyone by now that there is no prospect of progress on Gibraltar’s decolonisation on the basis of bilateral negotiations between the United Kingdom and Spain and that the way ahead for Gibraltar’s decolonisation has to be by application of the principle of self-determination. The administering State has recognised this in our Constitution and made it clear that no other course of action is acceptable. To make its position absolutely clear in 2008, Jim Murphy, the United Kingdom Minister of State for Europe stated and I quote:
“The UK Government will never – ‘never’ is a seldom-used word in politics – enter into an agreement on sovereignty without the agreement of the Government of Gibraltar and their people. In fact, we will never even enter into a process without that agreement. The word ‘never’ sends a substantial and clear commitment and has been used for a purpose. We have delivered that message with confidence to the peoples and the Governments of Gibraltar and Spain. It is a sign of the maturity of our relationship now that that is accepted as the UK’S position.”
This position is endorsed and subscribed to by all the main political parties in the United Kingdom which have all made it clear that they will not enter into any sovereignty negotiations over Gibraltar with which Gibraltar is not content. The situation is thus crystal clear, Mr Chairman. The people of Gibraltar have the right to self-determination in accordance with UN doctrine and this right is
3
unequivocally supported by the administering State which is not even prepared to consider sovereignty negotiations unless it is with Gibraltar’s consent which, as I am sure you are aware, Mr Chairman, is never going to come!
This position was further confirmed last year on our National Day, by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr David Cameron, who stated in a message transmitted to the people of Gibraltar and I quote:
“The British Government wholeheartedly supports your right to determine your political future. As I have said before, we will never agree to any transfer of sovereignty - or even start a process of negotiation of sovereignty – without your consent.”
And this, as I see it, is where the inherent contradiction in the UN position comes in. Our undeniable right to self-determine the future of our land means that it is us, the Gibraltarians, in consultation with the administering State, who must arrive at an acceptable, decolonised status for Gibraltar. This is self-evident and supported by UN doctrine and so I fail to see how any person or committee can suggest that Spain has any role to play in this process. Yet the 4th Committee has called upon the Governments of the UK and Spain to negotiate an end to the colonial situation of Gibraltar, presumably in compliance with General Assembly resolutions which are now half a century old and completely out of step with modern thinking in the 21st century. I find this proposal emanating from a body like the UN abhorrent and it is impossible to comprehend how the UN can come up with such a proposal which reduces our people to insignificant pawns with negotiations carried out over our heads, thereby ignoring our right to self-determination and apparently wishing to condemn our people to a permanent state of colonialism by a country which has no respect for us and which has over many years subjected our people to all kinds of pressure and bullying and harassment and hardship.
Given the above, Mr Chairman, it must be clear to everyone by now that there is no prospect of progress on Gibraltar’s decolonisation on the basis of bilateral negotiations between the United Kingdom and Spain. All of the main political parties in the United Kingdom have expressed in unequivocal terms that they respect the right of the people of Gibraltar to decide their own future and that of their land and this right is enshrined in our Constitution which is as it should be. It is the only honourable and ethical position to take. I do not believe for one moment that anyone carrying out an unbiased study of Gibraltar’s history since 1704 and assessing how our community has grown and developed its own unique identity, can argue that we do not have the right to assert that this is our land – it is the home of the Gibraltarians and it is about time that, after more than 300 years, and having entered into several treaties on Gibraltar, Spain accepted that this is so and moved on like so many other countries, in Europe and elsewhere, which have lost parts of their territory during the course of these 300 years and in time have accepted their loss.
It is worth reiterating, Mr Chairman, that, apart from the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, where Spain yielded to the Crown of Great Britain the propriety of Gibraltar and I quote:
4
“to be held and enjoyed absolutely with all manner of right for ever without any exception or impediment whatsoever.”
There are several other Treaties where Spain recognised British sovereignty over Gibraltar. The most important of these was the Treaty of Versailles of 1783, which is of particular interest in this context. Spain, as a victorious ally of the United States in the War of American Independence, could have insisted on the return of Gibraltar, but in November 1782, Spain let it be known that if she were offered not only Minorca but also the whole of Florida in exchange for her claim on Gibraltar she would give up her claim. So, under the Treaty of Versailles, England handed over to Spain Minorca and the whole of Florida. Today Minorca is still a Spanish possession and, as regards Florida, in 1819, by terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty, Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for 5 million dollars, the equivalent of which today is 168 million dollars. Thus Spain walked away from the Treaty of Versailles with a very advantageous settlement – Minorca and one hundred and sixty-eight million dollars. However, Spanish policy is always to secure as much as it can get by giving whatever assurances are required and then renege on these assurances and come back to demand more. Today she completely ignores the agreement to give up the claim to our land and now wants Britain to hand over Gibraltar also. So Spain, having profited hugely from the arrangements under the Treaty of Versailles and having relinquished the opportunity to recover Gibraltar is not prepared to abide by Treaty terms and now insists on trying to take over our land also. This disregard for Treaty agreements does not sit well with the Preamble to the UN Charter, Mr Chairman, which, as I am sure you know lays down as one of its aims and I quote:
“to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained”
Well, I am afraid that the UN has singularly failed to impress upon Spain that it has obligations arising from treaties relating to Gibraltar and Spain’s unwillingness to agree to seek a legal opinion on Gibraltar’s right to self-determination, as proposed by Gibraltar’s representatives on more than one occasion, is, in itself, a striking admission of the weakness of its case.
However, although all these Treaties give Great Britain an incontestable legal right to Gibraltar what is, to my mind, even more important in this day and age are the rights of peoples. During the over 300 years that Gibraltar has been British a homogeneous community has grown on our Rock descended from Maltese, Genoese, Portuguese, English and other races. Over those intervening 3 long centuries, all these peoples have coalesced to create a palpably unique identity which is at the heart of today’s Gibraltarianism. At the same time we have progressed politically with our own Parliament and democratic system of Government and Gibraltar has now been British for much longer than it was ever Spanish.
However the Government of Spain disregards all of this and tries to circumvent our clear and inalienable right to self-determination by arguing that the issue of Gibraltar should be resolved by application of the principle of ‘territorial integrity’. This argument is quite clearly completely untenable. In precisely Resolution 1514 (XV) from which I have quoted above on the right to self-determination, it is also stated that and I quote:
5
“Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
It is clearly ridiculous for anyone to now say that there is today an attempt aimed at the disruption of the territorial integrity of Spain in the context of Gibraltar which has not been Spanish for 310 years. Apart from this what is much more important is the fact that under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht Spain yielded to the Crown of Great Britain the propriety of Gibraltar for ever.
Now, Mr Chairman, Spain agreed to give Gibraltar up for ever in 1713, so where does the question of territorial integrity come in 300 years later? As a retired schoolteacher I can tell you, Mr Chairman, that I have known young children to give away a toy to another child and then throw a tantrum because they want it back the next day. However I am sure we are not basing ourselves on the behaviour of young children here and neither is Gibraltar a toy that can be bandied about at whim. It is a community of 30,000 people which over the last 3 centuries has, like the rest of Europe, developed its own manifest identity which is tangible and evident to anyone who visits our Rock and it is about time that Spain recognised that the people of Gibraltar have over these 3 centuries established unquestionable rights over this land of ours and that we do not want it taken over by Spain. I ask you, Mr Chairman, how long should it take for the inhabitants of a territory to be able to say ‘this is our land’ – two or three decades, half a century , a hundred years? Because we have existed as a people for much longer than that and I do not therefore believe that anyone can realistically deny in this 21st century that Gibraltar is the land of the Gibraltarians and that decisions as to its future can only be taken by our people in consultation, of course, with the administering State, but with no Spanish say in the matter or involvement of any kind.
Given all of the above, Mr Chairman, any reasonable person would expect Spain to have abandoned, or at least shelved, its claim to Gibraltar based on respect for democratic principles. I believe there are two reasons why Spain has not done so. The first is that for Spain, a country of 40 million people, it is very easy to bully and harass Gibraltar which is a territory with 30,000 inhabitants and so it does so on a regular basis, something which Spain would not dare to do if Gibraltar were a much larger territory with a correspondingly larger population. When such harassment and bullying takes place the international community merely looks on and the administering State mostly confines itself to diplomatic protests which Spain simply ignores. The second reason is that Spanish Governments find it convenient to use Gibraltar as a distraction whenever there are internal problems and unrest in the country. The present situation is a glaring example of this. Spain has huge economic problems, the highest unemployment rate in the whole of the European Union and terrible corruption scandals that engulf the whole country, from Municipal Councils to the highest levels of the Central Government and even involving members of the Royal Family and these have led to calls in the Spanish Parliament and from popular demonstrations for the President of the Government to resign, which, of course, he refuses to do although sections of the Spanish Press assert that in any other European Union country he would have done so a long time ago. But corruption in Spain’s political class is endemic, Mr Chairman, and corruption spreads like a virus and manifests itself wherever corrupt politicians are able to operate and this has led to complete disillusionment and loss of faith in their politicians amongst a large majority of Spaniards. This is not what I say, Mr Chairman. It is
6
what the Spanish media and opinion polls in Spain have revealed. In this scenario, Mr Chairman, the right-wing Government of Spain has whipped up nationalistic fervour and hatred against the people of Gibraltar by constantly spreading malicious lies about our country in order to divert attention away from its huge internal problems.
Despite all the negative propaganda against Gibraltar, based on lies and misinformation, many people are not so easily fooled and the he Spanish Government’s campaign against Gibraltar is seen for what it is - a politically motivated attempt to try and coerce our people into giving up the sovereignty of our land. Moreover, there are well-informed and prominent people in Spain who are familiar with the issue of Gibraltar and our territorial waters (which Spain refuses to recognise) and who make it clear, publicly, that they do not share their Government line on these matters. I will mention some important examples of this thinking. The first is Snr Jose Antonio Yturriaga Barberan, a retired Spanish Ambassador and former senior diplomat who once headed the legal section of the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Madrid. He has declared publicly, on more than one occasion, that Gibraltar has the right under international law to claim up to 12 miles of territorial sea and the air above it and that if this issue is taken to an international court Spain will lose. Another example is Snr Luis Perez-Prat Durban who is the Dean of the Law Faculty at the Olavide University of Seville and a former adviser to governments of the Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol and the Partido Popular, the two main political parties in Spain. He declared in a Press interview in Spain that international law supported the right to self-determination and that the people of Gibraltar should be free to choose their own future, regardless of Spain’s claim. Professor Perez-Prat went on to say that he thinks that, although not formally accepted, internally the Spanish Government has accepted that Gibraltar will never be Spanish. A third example is Snr Manuel Chaves, who was President of the Autonomous Region of Andalucia for 18 years and also Labour Minister and Vice President of the Spanish Government. After castigating the PP Government for their repressive policies against Gibraltar, he declared to the reporter interviewing him on the 14th May this year and I quote:
“Neither you nor I, nor our children or grandchildren are going to see a Spanish Rock, because in the end that has to be decided by the actual Gibraltarians.”
One final example, Mr Chairman, if I may. His Royal Highness, King Juan Carlos of Spain, declared some years ago that Spain did not really want Gibraltar because if Gibraltar were given back to Spain it would mean giving up Ceuta and Melilla (the two Spanish enclaves on the North African coast).
So there you have it, Mr Chairman, the comments of a few of the considerable number of prominent Spaniards who support the rights of the people of Gibraltar which your Committee seems reluctant to do anything about even though the Preamble to the Charter of the UN states and I quote:
“to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”
Finally, Mr Chairman, let me ask you whether there is anyone on this distinguished Committee – you yourself or one of the Vice Chairmen, or any other member, who is willing to engage with Gibraltar’s
7
representatives to tell us what we need to do to elicit some kind of response from this Committee on how to progress Gibraltar’s decolonisation, or perhaps you might organise a visiting mission to Gibraltar as this Committee is obliged to do – or is this asking for too much, Mr Chairman?
I have appended a summary of what I regard as the main facts of Gibraltar’s position which I trust members will peruse at their leisure.
I would once again thank you for granting me the opportunity to address you.
Summary of Facts
1. Gibraltar was captured by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
2. Spain ceded Gibraltar for ever under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.
3. The Treaty of Seville, 1723, and the Treaty of Paris, 1763, both confirmed British sovereignty over Gibraltar.
4. In the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Versailles, 1783, Spain undertook to give up her claim to Gibraltar if she were offered Minorca and Florida instead.
5. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles Spain was granted Minorca and Florida.
6. The Preamble to the UN Charter requires conditions to be established whereby justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.
Photo courtesy GBC -
We need more people to come forward and rise up to Defend our Rights, Our Choice and to become our Voice!
Anne-Marie Struggles
by Dominique Searle at the UN in New York Pics: Johnny Bugeja
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo and the Gibraltar delegation are pictured above arriving at the United Nations in New York yesterday ahead of his address to the Special Committee on Decolonisation.
Chief Minister Fabian Picardo arrived at the United Nations building on 1st Avenue, New York yesterday in the morning sunshine shaking a cocktail of bitter and sweet messages for the ambassadors of the Committee of 24. As they took their seats yesterday to - again - listen in silence to territories big and small make their pleas over the complex reasons for stagnation at the bottom of the UN delisting pile, he challenged their fitness for purpose.
The move drew an unprecedented and from the heart reaction from the visibly upset chairman Xavier Lasso Mendoza who urged patience and said that there was no easy task for the C24 and it could not simply act alone.
But Mr Picardo also opened a window of hope that the new King of Spain, Felipe, who is being crowned this week, will gesture a new era in respect of the Gibraltar claim.
And he also signalled the Rock’s desire for genuine dialogue supporting the UK’s proposals for talks “avoiding the pitfalls of lateralisms”.
“We seek to respect Spain and to be respected by Spain as a friendly and permanently distinct neighbour who can work closely with our large neighbour to the North as we already seek to do with our similar neighbour to the South.”
“To Felipe the Sixth of Spain, Gibraltar offers a hand of friendship and respect as neighbours and supporters of democracy. This new Head of State must know that we seek only peace, understanding and co-operation,” said Mr Picardo.
“Let us never fall for the negative, destructive force of futile and purile nationalism which feeds no-one but the dinosaurs who prefer to re-run the long lost battles of yesterday.
Let us prioritise dialogue.
We remain strongly committed to the trilateral process of dialogue, as the United Kingdom has also repeatedly said it is. Let us grab opportunities for such dialogue in a manner that does not compromise any attendant party.”
Foreign Secretary William Hague has, Mr Picardo told the forum, been imaginative in “seeking to avoid the pitfalls of lateralism by proposing a parallel ad hoc dialogue on matters of mutual interest, where the parties present would be those with relevant Constitutional competences.”
But if each year has brought an alternate wave of appeal and optimism to be followed by despair and anger with the C24, this year did not spare the UN diplomats, less still the chairman of the C24.
Mr Picardo took up the response from last year’s chair that it was doing strictly what the mandate allows. Yesterday he told them that they have the mandate to start assisting Gibraltar and to defend its right to self-determination now.
What they were not, he said forcefully, is doing what they should.
“The sound of this Committee’s silence resonates through the generations of Gibraltarians who have been denied their right to emerge from the de jure colonialism that we have long ago escaped from de facto.”
“The sound of your silence speaks to an organisation no longer fit for purpose; no longer able to discharge the functions for which it was established in a harder but much more idealistic world in the exciting times that have seen the numbers of people living in listed territories reduce from 750m to just over 2m.”
LAND GRABS
Nor are they there to deal with “international conveyancing”, a reference to the territorial claim which he said is a matter he is happy to test in the right place – the International Court of Justice. This he stressed is about people, not land.
Mr Picardo complained that now, in 2014, despite the fact that we are both part of the European Union – Spain uses “the same trumped-up excuses to impede traffic flow across the frontier.”
The Chief Minister, accompanied by his deputy Dr Joseph Garcia and a team of officials, listed the complaints made to the C24 by letter of the incursions by Spain into Gibraltar waters and also the effect on Spanish workers and people generally.
“Spain makes mothers, children, the old, the infirm queue for hours as a result of unnecessary sporadic pedestrian controls. There is no possible justification for their actions; despite even the most exaggerated concerns about the arbitrage in price in respect of some commodities. Gibraltar also suffers from undeclared imports; but all our controls are proportional and designed to avoid causing nuisance to people crossing the frontier between our nations.”
The actions created embittered relations, said Mr Picardo.
“I have no doubt that, one day, a more modern Spanish administration will look back on such behaviour with deep regret,” he said with dry optimism adding that such measures do nothing to enhance the reputation of Spain in seeking temporary membership of the Security Council.
INVITE
Mr Picardo revealed that this autumn will see a symposium in Gibraltar on self-determination and he invited the Committee’s chairman to speak at this or to send a delegate from the C24 to do so. He also asked it to hold a future seminar on the Rock of the type attended by Joe Bossano MP last month in Fiji.
But the underlying message from Gibraltar could not be clearer – “Gibraltar will never be Spanish”.
“We say clearly that we do not seek to be wooed for an eventual take over that would amount to a re-colonisation. No amount of wooing will ever persuade us to surrender our right to our land or will ever make us forget the way in which we have been treated for over half a century. But we also say clearly that this does not dampen our desire for a mature, productive and mutually beneficial dialogue as neighbours,” he said.
He closed calling on the C24 chairman, the Ecuador ambassador to the UN, Xavier Lasso Mendoza, to “support Gibraltar with the things that are in your power: a visit; attendance at our symposium; organisation of one of your next seminars in our territory; or even by seeking – at last - an Advisory Opinion from the ICJ on our right to self determination.”
“Support us because that is what you are created to do – or tell us why you won’t without pretending that you can’t.”
*******
UN Committee of 24
Self-Determination for Gibraltar Group
16th June 2014
Dennis Matthews
Mr Chairman I would, first of all, like to thank you for the opportunity you have afforded me of addressing this Committee.
The Self-Determination for Gibraltar Group, of which I am Chairman, has been in existence for almost 25 years and it was set up to seek recognition of Gibraltar’s right to self-determination leading to decolonisation and delisting. All Gibraltarians subscribe to democratic principles and, based on that premise, I can safely say that all Gibraltarians are convinced that we have the right to self-determine our political future and that of our land and during the last quarter of a century we have made considerable progress in achieving recognition of this right, not least, of course, here at the United Nations itself.
Over the more than 300 years that Gibraltar has been British there has been a gradual progression, culminating in our 2006 Constitution , which has brought about a level of self-government which, in the view of Her Majesty’s Government of the United Kingdom and others, has already established a decolonised status for Gibraltar. This may well be so, Mr Chairman, but regrettably, we have been unable, up till now, to elicit an opinion from any body here at the United Nations as to whether this view is correct or not and if it is not what changes might need to be made to achieve decolonisation. This in spite of the fact that a copy of our present Constitution was presented to this very Committee asking precisely for an opinion on whether it met your decolonisation criteria or not and this has been followed up by repeated requests for an opinion by Gibraltar delegations, all of which have fallen on deaf ears. We naturally find this extremely disappointing and I have to ask myself why this is so, Mr Chairman. Why is your Committee unwilling or unable to make a move or even a comment to help guide Gibraltar towards decolonisation?
In any event, Mr Chairman, I would like to say that I am somewhat puzzled by the decolonisation fervour which seems to grip certain sectors of the United Nations with declarations about Final Decades of Decolonisation (with the present one being the third one, by the way) which would seem to give a great urgency to the process of decolonisation, but which appears to come to an abrupt standstill when it comes to the question of Gibraltar which seems to have been relegated by this Committee, and others at the UN, to a state of limbo.
The fact is, Mr Chairman, that Colonial Empires ceased to exist a long time ago. Excluding Western Sahara, which is a case on its own, what are we talking about here in the context of the Final Decade of Decolonisation? We are talking about a number of mostly island communities ranging in population from the 210,000 of French Polynesia to a population of just 50 in Pitcairn. I do not believe that any of these communities are being exploited or are having their resources plundered to enrich their administering states as so often happened in the shameful era of the great Colonial
2
Empires and which would justify the UN’s expressions of urgency for their decolonisation. In fact I would venture to suggest that the boot is now on the other foot and that it is these small communities that are all now in some measure dependent on their administering state, whether it be in terms of defence, foreign affairs, economic aid or any other area. And it is right that this should be so, Mr Chairman. I believe that it is right that the old Colonial Empires, having taken so much from their colonies in the past, should now give something back to those small territories that need it. However, I believe that it is still of paramount importance that those territories that have a genuine desire to achieve a decolonised status, such as Gibraltar, should be given, by this Committee all the assistance required to achieve this objective in keeping with your UN mandate.
In this context, Mr Chairman, I have to tell you that the position of this Committee and the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee (4th Committee) appears to me to be both illogical and contradictory. Article I of Chapter I of the United Nations Charter which sets out ‘The Purposes of the United Nations’ in Point 2 states and I quote:
“to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples.”
This principle was ratified and further clarified by way of Section 2 of Resolution 1514 (XV) which states and I quote:
“All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”
Furthermore, Resolution 2231(XXI) itself recalls and demands implementation of Resolution 1514 (XV) thereby confirming application of the right of self-determination to all non-self-governing territories.
It should be clear to everyone by now that there is no prospect of progress on Gibraltar’s decolonisation on the basis of bilateral negotiations between the United Kingdom and Spain and that the way ahead for Gibraltar’s decolonisation has to be by application of the principle of self-determination. The administering State has recognised this in our Constitution and made it clear that no other course of action is acceptable. To make its position absolutely clear in 2008, Jim Murphy, the United Kingdom Minister of State for Europe stated and I quote:
“The UK Government will never – ‘never’ is a seldom-used word in politics – enter into an agreement on sovereignty without the agreement of the Government of Gibraltar and their people. In fact, we will never even enter into a process without that agreement. The word ‘never’ sends a substantial and clear commitment and has been used for a purpose. We have delivered that message with confidence to the peoples and the Governments of Gibraltar and Spain. It is a sign of the maturity of our relationship now that that is accepted as the UK’S position.”
This position is endorsed and subscribed to by all the main political parties in the United Kingdom which have all made it clear that they will not enter into any sovereignty negotiations over Gibraltar with which Gibraltar is not content. The situation is thus crystal clear, Mr Chairman. The people of Gibraltar have the right to self-determination in accordance with UN doctrine and this right is
3
unequivocally supported by the administering State which is not even prepared to consider sovereignty negotiations unless it is with Gibraltar’s consent which, as I am sure you are aware, Mr Chairman, is never going to come!
This position was further confirmed last year on our National Day, by the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Mr David Cameron, who stated in a message transmitted to the people of Gibraltar and I quote:
“The British Government wholeheartedly supports your right to determine your political future. As I have said before, we will never agree to any transfer of sovereignty - or even start a process of negotiation of sovereignty – without your consent.”
And this, as I see it, is where the inherent contradiction in the UN position comes in. Our undeniable right to self-determine the future of our land means that it is us, the Gibraltarians, in consultation with the administering State, who must arrive at an acceptable, decolonised status for Gibraltar. This is self-evident and supported by UN doctrine and so I fail to see how any person or committee can suggest that Spain has any role to play in this process. Yet the 4th Committee has called upon the Governments of the UK and Spain to negotiate an end to the colonial situation of Gibraltar, presumably in compliance with General Assembly resolutions which are now half a century old and completely out of step with modern thinking in the 21st century. I find this proposal emanating from a body like the UN abhorrent and it is impossible to comprehend how the UN can come up with such a proposal which reduces our people to insignificant pawns with negotiations carried out over our heads, thereby ignoring our right to self-determination and apparently wishing to condemn our people to a permanent state of colonialism by a country which has no respect for us and which has over many years subjected our people to all kinds of pressure and bullying and harassment and hardship.
Given the above, Mr Chairman, it must be clear to everyone by now that there is no prospect of progress on Gibraltar’s decolonisation on the basis of bilateral negotiations between the United Kingdom and Spain. All of the main political parties in the United Kingdom have expressed in unequivocal terms that they respect the right of the people of Gibraltar to decide their own future and that of their land and this right is enshrined in our Constitution which is as it should be. It is the only honourable and ethical position to take. I do not believe for one moment that anyone carrying out an unbiased study of Gibraltar’s history since 1704 and assessing how our community has grown and developed its own unique identity, can argue that we do not have the right to assert that this is our land – it is the home of the Gibraltarians and it is about time that, after more than 300 years, and having entered into several treaties on Gibraltar, Spain accepted that this is so and moved on like so many other countries, in Europe and elsewhere, which have lost parts of their territory during the course of these 300 years and in time have accepted their loss.
It is worth reiterating, Mr Chairman, that, apart from the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713, where Spain yielded to the Crown of Great Britain the propriety of Gibraltar and I quote:
4
“to be held and enjoyed absolutely with all manner of right for ever without any exception or impediment whatsoever.”
There are several other Treaties where Spain recognised British sovereignty over Gibraltar. The most important of these was the Treaty of Versailles of 1783, which is of particular interest in this context. Spain, as a victorious ally of the United States in the War of American Independence, could have insisted on the return of Gibraltar, but in November 1782, Spain let it be known that if she were offered not only Minorca but also the whole of Florida in exchange for her claim on Gibraltar she would give up her claim. So, under the Treaty of Versailles, England handed over to Spain Minorca and the whole of Florida. Today Minorca is still a Spanish possession and, as regards Florida, in 1819, by terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty, Spain ceded Florida to the United States in exchange for 5 million dollars, the equivalent of which today is 168 million dollars. Thus Spain walked away from the Treaty of Versailles with a very advantageous settlement – Minorca and one hundred and sixty-eight million dollars. However, Spanish policy is always to secure as much as it can get by giving whatever assurances are required and then renege on these assurances and come back to demand more. Today she completely ignores the agreement to give up the claim to our land and now wants Britain to hand over Gibraltar also. So Spain, having profited hugely from the arrangements under the Treaty of Versailles and having relinquished the opportunity to recover Gibraltar is not prepared to abide by Treaty terms and now insists on trying to take over our land also. This disregard for Treaty agreements does not sit well with the Preamble to the UN Charter, Mr Chairman, which, as I am sure you know lays down as one of its aims and I quote:
“to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained”
Well, I am afraid that the UN has singularly failed to impress upon Spain that it has obligations arising from treaties relating to Gibraltar and Spain’s unwillingness to agree to seek a legal opinion on Gibraltar’s right to self-determination, as proposed by Gibraltar’s representatives on more than one occasion, is, in itself, a striking admission of the weakness of its case.
However, although all these Treaties give Great Britain an incontestable legal right to Gibraltar what is, to my mind, even more important in this day and age are the rights of peoples. During the over 300 years that Gibraltar has been British a homogeneous community has grown on our Rock descended from Maltese, Genoese, Portuguese, English and other races. Over those intervening 3 long centuries, all these peoples have coalesced to create a palpably unique identity which is at the heart of today’s Gibraltarianism. At the same time we have progressed politically with our own Parliament and democratic system of Government and Gibraltar has now been British for much longer than it was ever Spanish.
However the Government of Spain disregards all of this and tries to circumvent our clear and inalienable right to self-determination by arguing that the issue of Gibraltar should be resolved by application of the principle of ‘territorial integrity’. This argument is quite clearly completely untenable. In precisely Resolution 1514 (XV) from which I have quoted above on the right to self-determination, it is also stated that and I quote:
5
“Any attempt aimed at the partial or total disruption of the national unity and the territorial integrity of a country is incompatible with the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.”
It is clearly ridiculous for anyone to now say that there is today an attempt aimed at the disruption of the territorial integrity of Spain in the context of Gibraltar which has not been Spanish for 310 years. Apart from this what is much more important is the fact that under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht Spain yielded to the Crown of Great Britain the propriety of Gibraltar for ever.
Now, Mr Chairman, Spain agreed to give Gibraltar up for ever in 1713, so where does the question of territorial integrity come in 300 years later? As a retired schoolteacher I can tell you, Mr Chairman, that I have known young children to give away a toy to another child and then throw a tantrum because they want it back the next day. However I am sure we are not basing ourselves on the behaviour of young children here and neither is Gibraltar a toy that can be bandied about at whim. It is a community of 30,000 people which over the last 3 centuries has, like the rest of Europe, developed its own manifest identity which is tangible and evident to anyone who visits our Rock and it is about time that Spain recognised that the people of Gibraltar have over these 3 centuries established unquestionable rights over this land of ours and that we do not want it taken over by Spain. I ask you, Mr Chairman, how long should it take for the inhabitants of a territory to be able to say ‘this is our land’ – two or three decades, half a century , a hundred years? Because we have existed as a people for much longer than that and I do not therefore believe that anyone can realistically deny in this 21st century that Gibraltar is the land of the Gibraltarians and that decisions as to its future can only be taken by our people in consultation, of course, with the administering State, but with no Spanish say in the matter or involvement of any kind.
Given all of the above, Mr Chairman, any reasonable person would expect Spain to have abandoned, or at least shelved, its claim to Gibraltar based on respect for democratic principles. I believe there are two reasons why Spain has not done so. The first is that for Spain, a country of 40 million people, it is very easy to bully and harass Gibraltar which is a territory with 30,000 inhabitants and so it does so on a regular basis, something which Spain would not dare to do if Gibraltar were a much larger territory with a correspondingly larger population. When such harassment and bullying takes place the international community merely looks on and the administering State mostly confines itself to diplomatic protests which Spain simply ignores. The second reason is that Spanish Governments find it convenient to use Gibraltar as a distraction whenever there are internal problems and unrest in the country. The present situation is a glaring example of this. Spain has huge economic problems, the highest unemployment rate in the whole of the European Union and terrible corruption scandals that engulf the whole country, from Municipal Councils to the highest levels of the Central Government and even involving members of the Royal Family and these have led to calls in the Spanish Parliament and from popular demonstrations for the President of the Government to resign, which, of course, he refuses to do although sections of the Spanish Press assert that in any other European Union country he would have done so a long time ago. But corruption in Spain’s political class is endemic, Mr Chairman, and corruption spreads like a virus and manifests itself wherever corrupt politicians are able to operate and this has led to complete disillusionment and loss of faith in their politicians amongst a large majority of Spaniards. This is not what I say, Mr Chairman. It is
6
what the Spanish media and opinion polls in Spain have revealed. In this scenario, Mr Chairman, the right-wing Government of Spain has whipped up nationalistic fervour and hatred against the people of Gibraltar by constantly spreading malicious lies about our country in order to divert attention away from its huge internal problems.
Despite all the negative propaganda against Gibraltar, based on lies and misinformation, many people are not so easily fooled and the he Spanish Government’s campaign against Gibraltar is seen for what it is - a politically motivated attempt to try and coerce our people into giving up the sovereignty of our land. Moreover, there are well-informed and prominent people in Spain who are familiar with the issue of Gibraltar and our territorial waters (which Spain refuses to recognise) and who make it clear, publicly, that they do not share their Government line on these matters. I will mention some important examples of this thinking. The first is Snr Jose Antonio Yturriaga Barberan, a retired Spanish Ambassador and former senior diplomat who once headed the legal section of the Spanish Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Madrid. He has declared publicly, on more than one occasion, that Gibraltar has the right under international law to claim up to 12 miles of territorial sea and the air above it and that if this issue is taken to an international court Spain will lose. Another example is Snr Luis Perez-Prat Durban who is the Dean of the Law Faculty at the Olavide University of Seville and a former adviser to governments of the Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol and the Partido Popular, the two main political parties in Spain. He declared in a Press interview in Spain that international law supported the right to self-determination and that the people of Gibraltar should be free to choose their own future, regardless of Spain’s claim. Professor Perez-Prat went on to say that he thinks that, although not formally accepted, internally the Spanish Government has accepted that Gibraltar will never be Spanish. A third example is Snr Manuel Chaves, who was President of the Autonomous Region of Andalucia for 18 years and also Labour Minister and Vice President of the Spanish Government. After castigating the PP Government for their repressive policies against Gibraltar, he declared to the reporter interviewing him on the 14th May this year and I quote:
“Neither you nor I, nor our children or grandchildren are going to see a Spanish Rock, because in the end that has to be decided by the actual Gibraltarians.”
One final example, Mr Chairman, if I may. His Royal Highness, King Juan Carlos of Spain, declared some years ago that Spain did not really want Gibraltar because if Gibraltar were given back to Spain it would mean giving up Ceuta and Melilla (the two Spanish enclaves on the North African coast).
So there you have it, Mr Chairman, the comments of a few of the considerable number of prominent Spaniards who support the rights of the people of Gibraltar which your Committee seems reluctant to do anything about even though the Preamble to the Charter of the UN states and I quote:
“to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small.”
Finally, Mr Chairman, let me ask you whether there is anyone on this distinguished Committee – you yourself or one of the Vice Chairmen, or any other member, who is willing to engage with Gibraltar’s
7
representatives to tell us what we need to do to elicit some kind of response from this Committee on how to progress Gibraltar’s decolonisation, or perhaps you might organise a visiting mission to Gibraltar as this Committee is obliged to do – or is this asking for too much, Mr Chairman?
I have appended a summary of what I regard as the main facts of Gibraltar’s position which I trust members will peruse at their leisure.
I would once again thank you for granting me the opportunity to address you.
Summary of Facts
1. Gibraltar was captured by an Anglo-Dutch force in 1704 during the War of the Spanish Succession.
2. Spain ceded Gibraltar for ever under the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht of 1713.
3. The Treaty of Seville, 1723, and the Treaty of Paris, 1763, both confirmed British sovereignty over Gibraltar.
4. In the negotiations leading up to the Treaty of Versailles, 1783, Spain undertook to give up her claim to Gibraltar if she were offered Minorca and Florida instead.
5. Under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles Spain was granted Minorca and Florida.
6. The Preamble to the UN Charter requires conditions to be established whereby justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained.
Photo courtesy GBC -
We need more people to come forward and rise up to Defend our Rights, Our Choice and to become our Voice!
Anne-Marie Struggles
No comments:
Post a Comment
If you are a member of the Fascist GE (Facebook group) you are just wasting your time thinking you can comment on here and use this blog as a platform - see ya!