MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar: Peoples' rights are above political disputes

The United Nations Committee of 24 (C24) promised this week to respond to Gibraltar and do its job diligently after it was urged to put people first above political disputes over sovereignty, and to discharge its duty to Gibraltarians.

Peter Caruana Chief Minister in his opening remarks in New York reminded countries charged with the decolonisation process that they had a ?sacred' duty to see that Gibraltar (under British rule and claimed by Spain) is decolonised and the right of self-determination be respected irrespective of any ?sovereignty dispute'. Mr Caruana's message acknowledged the improved climate with Spain but without any sacrifice to the Gibraltar position on the rights of the people to decide the future of the Rock as a whole. "The government of Gibraltar will certainly continue to take part in this new process of dialogue (with Spain), which is not incompatible with our right to self-determination and which is safe. But we will never compromise on our right to freely and democratically decide our own future in accordance with our right to self-determination," said Mr Caruana adding that Gibraltar would press for the continuation of constitutional reform talks with Britain. Opposition Leader Joe Bossano fresh from his presentation at the UN seminar in St Vincent made his central theme the argument that there must not be any resumption of sovereignty discussions between the UK and Spain. This, said Mr Bossano addressing C 24, is "totally unacceptable". At the UN seminar in St. Vincent Mr. Bossano also defended the Falklands' position against Argentina, an action extensively covered as lead story in last week's Penguin News, the Islands' newspaper. Mr Caruana, who does not discard building improved relations with Spain, treaded a finely crafted path which combined robust statements on the Gibraltar position with a major emphasis on the human rights issues at the centre of the debate.

"The business C24 should be addressing"

He stressed that the sovereignty dispute cannot suspend, displace or cancel the applicability of fundamental human rights. And these issues, not sovereignty are "the business C 24 should be addressing". Mr. Caruana also challenged C 24 for the preferential treatment given to territories "in which there is no sovereignty dispute". He reinforced this with reference to the finding in the Namibia case before the International Court of Justice which said self-determination must apply to "all" the self-governing territories. Mr Caruana chastised the C24 for failing to take up the invitation to visit Gibraltar and of failing to take the Gibraltar question to the ICJ for an advisory opinion to dispel the "false assertions" used to decline self-determination to the Rock. As in previous addresses Mr Caruana set out the case against Spain's ?territorial integrity' argument and he challenged the idea that the C24 could possibly endorse a transfer of sovereignty against the wishes of its people in this century. The Chief Minister went on to report as a significant breakthrough the current talks' process with Spain. He reminded the C24 of his regular declarations on Gibraltar's terms for participating in open agenda dialogue and the rejection of the Fourth Committee's annual backing for bilateral talks. Producing a copy of the Straw/Moratinos statement of last December which set out the basis for tripartite dialogue, Mr Caruana applauded Spain's decision to support such a process and its statement that it wanted to normalise relations with Gibraltar even though the Rock is seeking that Spain recognise Gibraltar's right to self-determination and to bring about the withdrawal of the sovereignty claim. However the judgement on this process, he said, will be made on Spain's actions not her words. In what appeared to be a broadside at Mr Bossano's claims of triumph at the recent Caribbean seminar Mr Caruana told the session that the establishment of the new trilateral forum was at the root of the disappearance from the seminar's report of support for the bilateral process between UK and Spain under the Brussels Process. He went onto not only welcome the disappearance of that recommendation but added the argument that the two processes (Brussels and tripartite) are "incompatible and cannot operate in parallel or at the same time." Mr. Caruana finally hoped this would be reflected in the Consensus Resolution this year. Britain he said had given assurances that it had no intention of resuming Brussels talks. Mr Bossano took up the Spanish delegate and told the session that it appeared that Spain's expectation is that the UK should respond with a willingness to make sovereignty concessions as a quid pro quo for the current process. He said he had thought that Spain was hoping to "at some distant date in the future" revive the sovereignty question but that Spain's remarks suggested that "their hope is less distant than I anticipated."

Bossano: "a matter for Gibraltar and Britain alone"

"It is about time that this committee unambiguously declared its unconditional support for our right to self-determination." In what he described as a manipulation of UN seminar statements Mr Bossano said this was something of a mystery but he condemned the performance of the British representative at a Papua New Guinea seminar who had tried to put the Gibraltar and Falklands disputes on the back burner. These conclusions, he said, could not be accepted by the Committee since none of the members agreed with it. And he reminded the C24 that mediation in territorial disputes between member states is not their role and has nothing to do with decolonisation. Mr Bossano said that the Anglo-Spanish talks on sovereignty had taken place three years ago and that "the proposed shared sovereignty, which would not have decolonised the territory anyhow, was totally rejected by Gibraltar in the 2002 referendum." As far as we are concerned that is now the end of the matter and the end of any further future discussions between UK and Spain." The new Spanish policy, he said, appeared to be one of replacing carrot and stick with more carrots and less stick. But he reminded that the UN requires countries to conduct relations on the basis of good neighbourliness. In all events Mr Bossano predicted that the response to raising sovereignty again would be the same as in 1967 and 2002. He added that just because Spain puts its sovereignty claim on hold did not mean that Gibraltar would do the same with its right to self-determination. "Our decolonisation has to proceed irrespective of what Spain does or does not do." And this was a matter for Gibraltar and Britain alone. "C24 might find Gibraltar a more complex issue but that did not justify treating it differently to other territories".

C24 promises "a pair of fresh eyes"

C24 Chairman Dr Julian Hunte said he had heard Gibraltar's ?compelling' arguments and its call for the Committee to do its job and promised to approach the matter "with a pair of fresh eyes". "We are approaching the end of the decade and it is necessary, we have been given a mandate, to review all of these things. The purpose of these hearings is not only to sit and listen but on the basis of what we have heard, to determine how we approach a particular issue," said Dr Hunte. "These are now matters that require some movement in so far as where it is heading and we have a responsibility to discharge, which we will do fairly and in the interests of transparency and the determination of the issues which are before us." The delegate for St Vincent and the Grenadines Margaret Ferrary thanked Mr Caruana and Mr Bossano for their passionate and compelling statements that had kept committee members "spellbound for many years". "Their blandishment of the committee and of or failure to make progress with regard to self-determination in Gibraltar seems to me to be well founded and induce a certain sense of guilt in this delegation," she said also welcoming the new climate of co-operation with Spain.