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The Fight for Self - Determination Joe Bossano
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CHIEF MINISTER'S ADDRESS TO THE FOURTH COMMITTEE AT THE
UNITED NATIONS ON MONDAY 9TH OCTOBER 1995.
Mr Chairman, it is a privilege to have the opportunity of
addressing the Fourth Committee on the occasion of the Fiftieth
Anniversary of the United Nations. It is an opportunity which
enables me to demonstrate that the history of my country and its
people has formed part of the U.N.'s own 50 year history.
When the Charter was drafted in 1945, Chapter XI highlighted the
importance of the rights of the peoples of the Non Self-Governing
Territories. I appear before you to claim the protection of these
rights for my people.
Under Article 73, Members responsible for colonial territories
accepted, as a sacred trust, the obligation to promote to the
utmost the well-being of the inhabitants of these territories. To
this end, they accepted the obligation to develop self-government
and to take account of the political aspirations of the peoples.
When you consider the question of Gibraltar, the issue that you
have to consider are our rights and our aspirations - not
outdated territorial disputes.
In 1946, Gibraltar was inscribed as an administered territory
with its own separate population as provided for in Article 73.
The U.N. was then one year old.
On the UN's eighteenth birthday - in 1963 - the recently created
Committee of 24, accepted Gibraltar as one of the colonial
territories with its own distinct people to whom Resolution 1514
(XV) fully applied.
At that point in time, the people of Gibraltar staked their claim
to the right of self determination. In the ensuing 32 years of
the 50 year life of this organisation, we have been demanding
recognition of our inalienable rights. This we are entitled to
demand, not just of the administering power, but of the 185
members, who today make up this Assembly, including the Kingdom
of Spain.
In 1948, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights established
the fundamental character of self determination. This was
subsequently reflected in the International Covenants of Human
Rights which states that the right to self determination is
universal.
Mr Chairman, when the United Kingdom ratified these Covenants, it
extended them to all its dependent territories including the
people of Gibraltar. 10. Equally, the Kingdom of Spain, on
ratifying the Covenants, did not enter any reservation on its
applicability to Gibraltar. I remind the Committee, of Article 1
which requires that:
"The States Parties to the present Covenant including those
having responsibility for the administration of non self-
governing and trust territories shall promote the realisation of
the right of self determination and shall respect that right in
conformity with the provisions of the Charter of the United
Nations."
This is an obligation placed primarily on the administering
power, but not exclusively. It is an obligation that is binding
on the United Kingdom, on the Kingdom of Spain and indeed on
every State that ratifies the Covenants.
Following my last appearance before your committee in 1994, I
addressed the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
In paragraph 9 of its Report:
"The (committee notes the concern expressed to it about the
situation of Gibraltar in relation to the right of self
determination, recognised in Article 1 of the Covenant and calls
upon all parties to the existing situation to ensure full respect
for all the rights recognised in the Covenant in relation to the
future development concerning Gibraltar."
This observation, Mr Chairman, fully accords with the view that I
have just expressed about the nature of this obligation on all
the signatories.
No Resolution of the General Assembly can - as Spain claims -
create a doctrine which deprives a particular people of a
universal, inalienable human right. By definition, Mr Chairman,
if human rights could be set aside by resolutions of the General
Assembly, they would be neither inalienable nor universal.
Of all the peoples that the U.N. requires should be decolonised -
only we the Gibraltarians - have had our right to self
determination questioned. Yet, no other people can claim as long
a pedigree in the struggle to achieve recognition of this
fundamental right.
Mr Chairman, my people fully subscribe to Resolution 46/181
declaring the International Decade for the Eradication of
Colonialism. Article 2 declares that the ultimate goal of the
Decade is the free exercise of the right of self determination by
the peoples of each and every remaining Non self-governing
Territory. We are one of those remaining Non self-governing
Territories and we demand to be treated the same as the rest.
That Resolution adopted the proposals contained in the Annex to
the Report of the Secretary General as a Plan of Action for the
Decade. No Government of any other non self-governing territory
has been as committed, as active and as involved in co-operating
with the U.N. in the fulfilment of the Plan, as my Government
has.
Last year's Resolution on decolonisation, 49/89, required that
the Committee of 24 carry out, during the 1995 Session, a mid-
term review of the Plan in the context of the commemoration of
the fiftieth anniversary
My Government supported and welcomed this initiative and actively
participated in the deliberations of the Seminar in Trinidad and
Tobago.
It proved to be an excellent venue for exploring possible forms
of decolonisation. It gave all of us who took part, an
opportunity to explain our own situation. It enabled us to look
jointly with members of the Committee of 24 at the broad spectrum
of options open to Non Self-Governing Territories. It also
highlighted the crucial point that whatever options were open to
us, these had to be on the basis of the exercise of self
determination. All of this is fully reflected in the conclusions
and recommendations which have been circulated to members of this
Committee.
Members will have seen that by Recommendation 17, the Seminar,
"Notes the request of Gibraltar that the Special Committee give
consideration to the relevance of Article 10 of the Treaty Of
Utrecht of 1713 as regards the available options in respect of
this particular non self-governing territory and suggest that
this request be considered by the Special Committee."
Mr Chairman, this request was considered by the Special Committee
in July this year. In my address to the Committee, I concentrated
on the need for the Special Committee to give consideration to
this matter.
Why is this so important? Because, the administering power
claims, it is the only constraint on the full recognition of the
Gibraltarians right to self- determination.
My Government is totally convinced that this is not a sustainable
argument. I have said so repeatedly to the Government of the
United Kingdom; before your Committee; before the Special
Committee; and, before the Committee on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights.
Let me remind the Committee what the General Assembly requires by
operative paragraph 5 of Section 2 of the Action Plan.
It says that the United Nations, m co-operation with the
administering powers, should ensure that the peoples of the Non
Self-Governing Territories are kept fully aware of the political
status options available to them through increased direct contact
with their elected leaders. I am the elected leader of the people
of Gibraltar. The U.N., Mr Chairman, is supposed to be acting so
that my people are fully aware of the political status options
available to them.
What are these political status options available to us? Or is it
that we have none? If we have no options, what are we supposed to
be considering? It is certainly not an option for decolonisation,
if what we have is the choice of being a colonial possession of
London or Madrid.
It is for this reason that I appealed to the Committee of 24 for
guidance on this matter. It is for this reason that the Gibraltar
position was reflected in the recommendations of the Trinidad and
Tobago Seminar. There is a clear need to establish once and for
all, the relevance, or otherwise, of Article 10 of the Treaty of
Utrecht of 1713. It is for this reason that I now ask you to
authorise the Committee of 24 to seek an advisory opinion from
the International Court of Justice.
Mr Chairman, as required by the Plan, we, in Gibraltar, have
continued to publicise the UN role on Decolonisation. This year,
we symbolically included in our National Day activities, the
issue of a special coin commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the
UN. We have continued to gain support in UK, in Spain and in
other countries for Gibraltarian self-determination.
Additionally, we provide full coverage on public TV of all my UN
appearances so that our people can follow events first hand.
On the very day of the Fiftieth Anniversary Celebrations we
formally launched in London the Association of British Dependent
Territories jointly with the other Non Self-Governing
Territories. This initiative was warmly welcomed at the mid-term
review Seminar and is reflected in paragraph 16 of the Report.
As in previous years, we have got the National Day booklet and
National Day video of this year to distribute to the
distinguished representatives of the Member countries of the
United Nations, from which it will be evident how conscious the
people of Gibraltar are, of the drive for self determination and
for decolonisation.
Through our own activities in this area and through the warm
relationship we enjoy with the Committee of 24, we have fully met
the level of involvement welcomed by them and reflected in
paragraph 109 of their Report of October 1994 where it states:
"Bearing in mind the affirmation by the Assembly that the direct
association of the non self-governing territories in the work of
the United Nations and the specialist agencies is an effective
means of promoting the progress of the peoples of these
territories towards a position of equality with State Members of
the United Nations, the Committee also recommends that the
Assembly should continue to invite the administering power to
allow the representatives of the territories concerned to
participate in the discussions in the Special Political and
Decolonisation Committee, the Fourth Committee, i.e. this
Committee and in the Committee of 24 in items relating to their
respective territory."
This is why I am here today. This is why I have appeared before
the Committee of 24 since July 1992. This is why my people have
got such faith in the U.N. It is precisely in this forum where
the concept of equality constantly surfaces. But equality, sad to
say, Mr Chairman, is totally absent from the draft Consensus
Resolution before you. Far from being treated as an equal, the
Resolution treats us as if we do not exist.
This is at Spain's insistence. I invite this Committee to analyse
Spain's reasoning.
Last year, Spain's Foreign Minister referred to my country by
saying:
"This General Assembly has clearly established the doctrine
whereby the decolonisation of Gibraltar is not a case of self
determination but of the restoration of the territorial integrity
of Spain".
We, the people of Gibraltar totally reject this; we do not accept
that it is the doctrine of the General Assembly but rather the
doctrine of the Kingdom of Spain. And I now propose to
demonstrate the origin of this alleged doctrine.
Mr Chairman, the text of the Resolution on the question of
Gibraltar this year is predictably identical to that of previous
years.
It is a Consensus text which we the people of Gibraltar reject.
It recalls the 1984 Brussels Statement and urges the UK and Spain
to continue their negotiations in the light of the relevant
United Nations Resolutions. A similar Resolution has been
approved every previous year going back to 1986.
In 1985, however, the Consensus Resolution contained a
significant difference. It described the Brussels negotiating
process as that foreseen in the Consensus Resolution approved by
the General Assembly on the 14th December 1973. I emphasise this
fact. What was this Consensus Resolution which is the basis of
the Brussels negotiating process?
That Resolution, in 1973, called for negotiations between the two
Governments for Gibraltar9s decolonisation taking into account
Resolution 2429 (XXIII). In support of this, in 1973, Senor
Pinies, representing the then fascist Government of the Caudillo
of Spain, General Franco, described the Resolution as reflecting
what he labelled "the Doctrine of the United Nations for the
decolonisation of Gibraltar".
This, Mr Chairman, is the source from which Senor Solana, the
Foreign Minister today of a democratic Spain, draws his
inspiration and bases his premise about the doctrine of the U.N.
on the question of Gibraltar.
Since 1946, we the Gibraltarians have been accepted at the UN by
virtue of Article 73 as a separate people in our own right. This
land of which you talk in your Consensuses is our land and no-one
is going to take it away from us.
The negotiations called for took account, as I have said, of
Resolution 2429 (XXIII). This had requested the administering
power to terminate the colonial situation in Gibraltar no later
than the 1st October 1969. A call which was interpreted by the
fascist regime in Spain as requiring the United Kingdom to hand
me and my people over to them, ignoring our right to self
determination.
It also regretted that the administering power had failed to
comply with an earlier one, Resolution 2353 (XXII), which
rejected the 1967 Referendum held in Gibraltar. It invited the
Governments of Spain and the United Kingdom to resume without
delay negotiations, to put an end to the colonial situation.
Mr Chairman, we the people of Gibraltar reject Resolution 2353
(XXII) on three main grounds.
We deplore the fact that a number of the delegates allowed their
votes, at the time, to be determined not by the merits of our
case; nor by a paramount concern for the wishes of our people;
nor by the principles of the Charter; but by irrelevant and
extraneous considerations which had no connection whatsoever with
the question of Gibraltar.
For all these reasons that I have stated Mr Chairman, we reject
that Resolution 2353 (XMI) as unworthy of the United Nations and
a disgrace to this Committee.
Strong words, you may say, Mr Chairman. I have to tell you they
are not mine. If the members of this Committee care to go back
and check their records, they will find that I have quoted,
verbatim, the reaction of the United Kingdom representative, Lord
Caradon in this Committee, to the passing of that Resolution, in
December 1967. Every subsequent Resolution that is capable of
interpretation as a reaffirmation of this so-called doctrine is
also unworthy of the UN and a disgrace to this Committee.
Gibraltar's decolonisation can only happen using the established
mechanisms and procedures envisaged in the Action Plans which the
General Assembly endorsed in 1980 and 1991 for the remaining non
self-governing territories.
I draw the attention of the Committee to the Action Plan of 1980,
adopted in Resolution 35/118, by which, the General Assembly in
operative paragraph 5:
"Categorically rejects any agreement, arrangement or unilateral
action by colonial and racist powers which ignores, violates,
denies or conflicts with the inalienable right of peoples under
colonial domination to self determination and independence."
I submit, Mr Chairman, that the Brussels Agreement referred to in
the Consensus Resolution before you is such an agreement. Spain
insists that the Brussels negotiating process denies us, the
Gibraltarians, our right to self- determination. They are co-
sponsoring this Resolution on the premise that their view is
shared by the United Kingdom. This clearly constitutes an
agreement between the two of them, in flagrant breach of
Resolution 35/118. The Brussels Agreement, in the words of the
Resolution, ignores, violates, denies and conflicts with the
inalienable rights of a colonial people, the Gibraltarians, to
self determination.
For as long, therefore, as Spain maintains that it is the
doctrine of the General Assembly to deny my people self
determination; for as long as that doctrine is claimed to be the
basis of the Brussels Statement and its negotiating process, my
people and my Government will fight that process every inch of
the way.
We have already seen how the Committee of 24, after three years
of direct dialogue with the people of Gibraltar, has acquired a
new perspective on the question of Gibraltar, and understands the
aspirations of my people better now, than in the preceding twenty
eight years. We expect to see a similar response developing also
in the General Assembly with more Members coming round to the
view that the colonial situation in Gibraltar is no different,
from that in any other part of the world.
In time, we also hope to see a change in the attitude of the
Kingdom of Spain.
I look forward with particular interest this year, to the
contribution in this Committee of the Presidency of the European
Union of which we Gibraltarians are citizens.
Last year, Germany had this to say:-
"The European Union confirms its support for the principle of
self determination and f6r actions consistent with the Charter
aimed at the elimination of colonialism, irrespective of the
geographical location and population size, of the remaining non
self-governing territories."
As I have said, I look forward to hearing Spain, who hold the
Presidency this year, repeating the same commitment to self
determination for all peoples which includes us the
Gibraltarians.
The 1980 Action Plan was revised in 1991 calling for certain new
steps to be taken. My Government is fully committed to working
closely with the organs of the United Nations in adhering to
those revised objectives.
Section 2 of the 1991 Plan identifies the areas in which the UN
should take action as a matter of priority. I offer the full
support and co-operation of my Government in bringing about this
recommended action.
Operative Paragraph 8 requires that:
"The Secretary General or his special representative should visit
each of the non self-governing territories as early as possible
during the decade and report thereon to the General Assembly."
I therefore now formally issue an invitation to the General
Secretary or his representative to visit Gibraltar at the
earliest possible date and report thereon to the General
Assembly.
Operative paragraph 7 requires that the review of the situation
in the territory should be carried out by the U.N. in
consultation with the administering power and the Government of
the territory in order to arrange for the holding of a self
determination Referendum as soon as possible but not later than
the 31st December 1999.
My Government is fully committed to the holding of such a
Referendum on self determination, supervised and organised under
the auspices of the U.N. Mr Chairman, unless, and until, we are
told that neither the protection of the Charter nor the
provisions of the Resolutions on the Eradication of Colonialism
apply to us, we look to you and to your Committee to stand by the
people of Gibraltar.
Your Excellencies, in putting the case of my people, I have
relied on the logical arguments of the technical procedures of
this Organisation. In finalising my appeal for your support, I
can do no better than to ask you to reflect on the words of His
Holiness Pope John Paul II when he addressed the General Assembly
here last week, as they apply to the question of Gibraltar. His
Holiness said:
"The UN Organisation needs to rise more and more above the cold
status of an administrative institution and to become a moral
centre where all the nations of the world feel at home and
develop a shared awareness of being, as it were, a 'family of
nations'."
I ask you, is there no place in this family for the
Gibraltarians? How can we emerge from colonialism and take our
rightful place in the family of nations? Again, I quote from the
address of His Holiness:
"There can be historical circumstances in which aggregations
different from single state sovereignty can even prove advisable,
but only on condition that this takes place in a climate of true
freedom guaranteed by the exercise of self-determination of the
peoples concerned."
Ladies and gentlemen, I rest my case.
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