MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar decolonized and all that remains is “UN delisting”

Joe Holliday, Gibraltar's deputy Chief Minister, told the United Nations seminar in Grenada that Gibraltar is decolonised and that it is for the UN to de-list the territory. The seminar reaffirmed the principle of self determination and Argentina and Spain were criticized for furthering their sovereignty disputes.

According to official UN reports Holliday told the Caribbean Regional Seminar on the implementation of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism that the people of Gibraltar had approved a new Constitution, recognised by the Government of the United Kingdom, which gave practical self-government to the territory with some residual powers for the UK. "That was the relationship with the United Kingdom that the Territory's people wanted, and it was not a colonial relationship. The United Kingdom had recognized the acceptance of the Constitution after a referendum as an act of self-determination". Holliday announced that the United Nations should not further concern itself with the decolonisation of Gibraltar and that "all that remained was de-listing, a matter purely for the United Nations itself," said the UN report from St George, Grenada. However the representative of Spain stated that the text of the Constitution had been submitted to the people of Gibraltar in non-legal consultations and that the process had not taken place within the framework of the United Nations. "The so-called self-government was limited, and article 10 of the 1730 Treaty of Utrecht gave Spain the right of sovereignty over Gibraltar. Sovereignty matters were of a bilateral nature between Spain and the United Kingdom", he insisted. Several speakers reportedly regretted that the Seminar was used by some States to further their own agenda regarding sovereignty disputes. It was pointed out that the phrase in one of the recommendations from last year's Seminar â€" "in the process of decolonization, where there are no disputes over sovereignty, there was no alternative to the principle of self-determination, which is also a fundamental human right" â€" did not reflect the opinion of Seminar participants, but solely of Spain and Argentina. They should not be allowed to "hijack" the Seminar, said the UN report. Addressing the role of the Special Committee in facilitating the decolonisation of the Non-Self-Governing Territories within the framework of the Second International Decade, the Chairperson of the Seminar, Margaret Hughes Ferrari (Saint Vincent and the Grenadines), said that the Committee's one essential task was the "de-listing" of Non-Self-Governing Territories. With only two and a half years left in the Second International Decade, it was essential to focus the next steps in decolonisation on tangible results for all concerned. It was important, she said, "to recognize an act of self-determination when we see one". Instead of automatically discounting the "status quo" situation in its entirety, possibilities could be considered among the array of legitimate "transitions to self-determination", provided that the people of the territory had had the opportunity to make a fully informed choice.