MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar “aspirations and interests” included in UN text.

In its session this week the United Nations Fourth Committee adopted without a vote the decision calling for a solution on Gibraltar but changing the text for the first time in years.
It followed Spanish president Jose Rodriguez Zapatero's statement last month when he said that Madrid wanted to hear Gibraltar's voice.

The Fourth Committee call states: "By the terms of a draft decision on the question of Gibraltar the Assembly would urge the Governments of Spain and United Kingdom, while listening to the interests and aspirations of Gibraltar, to reach in the spirit of the Brussels agreement a definitive solution to the question of that Territory, in the light of relevant resolutions of the General Assembly and the Charter of the United Nations."

In contrast the 2003 text had stated: "By a draft decision on the question of Gibraltar, the Assembly would take note of the fact that as part of the Brussels negotiating process, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Spain and the United Kingdom hold annual meetings alternatively in each country, the most recent of which were held in Barcelona on 20 November 2001 and in London on 4 February 2002. It would urge both Governments to continue their negotiations with the object of reaching a definitive solution to the problem of Gibraltar in light of relevant Assembly resolutions and in the spirit of the United Nations Charter."

Meanwhile also at this week's session Spain's spokesman said his country supported self-determination of Non-Self-Governing Territories, but that principle was not the only relevant factor. In Gibraltar, the principle of territorial integrity should also be implemented, he said.

In the broader debate the Fourth Committee agreed that through the draft on the Implementation of the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples, the Assembly would call upon the administering Powers to take all necessary steps to enable the peoples of the Non-Self-Governing Territories to exercise fully, as soon as possible, their right to self-determination, which would include the option of independence.

"In that effort, it would call on the Powers to cooperate fully with the Special Committee on Decolonisation to finalize before the end of 2005 a case-by-case programme of work, towards the implementation all relevant resolutions. The draft was adopted with 133 in favour to 2 against (United Kingdom, United States) and 5 abstentions (Belgium, France, Georgia, Germany, Israel)," the official UN report stated. Among texts approved without a vote was a consolidated text on small-island Territories, which would have the Assembly reaffirm that there was no alternative to the principle of self-determination in the process of decolonisation.

"It would call upon the administering Powers, in cooperation with the territorial Governments, to facilitate the political process in the Territories through education and other means. In part B of that draft, concerning individual territories, the Assembly would welcome the constitutional review process undertaken by the Governments of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Saint Helena and Turks and Caicos Islands, in cooperation with the administering Power."

In another action, the Committee approved a draft resolution on information from Non-Self-Governing Territories transmitted under Article 73 e of the United Nations Charter. By that text, the Assembly would request the administering Powers concerned to transmit to the Secretary-General under Article 73 e, the fullest possible information on political and constitutional developments in the Territories concerned. The text was approved by a recorded vote of 128 in favour to none against, with 3 abstentions (Israel, United Kingdom, and United States) (Annex I).