MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK legally obliged to send UN annual reports on Gibraltar

United Kingdom is legally obliged to continue to send annual reports on Gibraltar until the UN General Assembly votes to remove the territory from its list of non self-governing territories, even if the UK believes that a territory has been decolonized.

The Government of Gibraltar made the announcement following statements from the leader of the opposition Mr. J Bossano who argued to the contrary before the British Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee the UK saying that accordingly the real test of the UK's view on whether Gibraltar's new Constitution had brought about decolonisation would be whether or not they stopped sending annual reports. "This is wrong," said a Gibraltar Government spokesperson. "Under the terms of the UN Charter, and UN decolonisation resolutions and procedures, the UK is legally obliged to continue to send annual reports until the UN General Assembly itself votes to remove the territory from its list of non self-governing territories, even if the UK believes that a territory has been decolonized. The UK's continued submission of Article 73(e) Reports to the UN in relation to Gibraltar therefore says and means nothing as to the UK's own views and position on the matter", added the spokesperson. "In these circumstances the UK Government has consulted in detail with the Gibraltar Government about the nature of the Report and the covering letter for this year (submitted in February 2008), which is the first occasion on which the need to send a report has arisen since the coming into effect of the New Constitution. "The Report itself, which has been prepared by the Gibraltar Government, is a very different and much shorter report than in the past, 6 pages this year, compared to 122 pages in 2006. The UK makes it clear that, aside from any consideration applying in this regard to its other Overseas Territories, its relationship with Gibraltar is, following our New Constitution, now non-colonial in nature, and that accordingly the UK does not believe that Gibraltar should remain on the UN list of non self-governing territories." Commenting on the matter, Chief Minister Peter Caruana said, "Unfortunately, the UK is not legally free to unilaterally stop reporting to the UN, until the UN itself releases the UK from its obligation. This is one of the many issues upon which Mr Bossano misinformed the Foreign Affairs Committee. We are satisfied that the UK has done the very next best thing which is to say to the UN that they are sending the Report only because they are legally obliged to do so, but that as a result of the new Constitution we should not be on the UN list. "As far as the Gibraltar Government and the UK Government are concerned we are no longer in a colonial relationship. How long the UN chooses to take to recognise that objective reality does not alter that objective reality. We will continue to press them to modernize their delisting criteria, but, in the meantime, we will not throw away the value to Gibraltar of these achievements by making ourselves perpetual hostages to a UN that has never lifted a finger to help us. If Mr Bossano and the GSLP Liberal Opposition wish to do that, that's up to him and them". Chief Minister Caruana added that following on from "our New Constitution, and our act of self-determination, i.e. the Referendum, through which we approved it, the Government intends this year, to significantly vary the nature of the political event on National Day". In his statement before the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee Caruana stated that he believes that the New Gibraltar Constitution provides for a relationship between Gibraltar and the United Kingdom which is not colonial in nature. Mr Caruana made the statement in his written submission to what is an inquiry into the state of Britain's Overseas Territories generally. A number of people have made Gibraltar related submissions including Joe Bossano, Opposition Leader who also attended a session in London. In the Government's paper to the FAC Mr Caruana states that the nature and extent of the powers of self government and autonomy that the new Constitution bestows on Gibraltar are not compatible with the view that the relationship remains a colonial one and that Gibraltar therefore remains a colony. He points out that the British Government shares this view and has so declared publicly. The lengthy submission sets out legal arguments to illustrate the impact of the new Constitution on Gibraltar's governance and sets out as a fundamental that, under the Gibraltar Constitution and under UK law, the Governor is the representative in Gibraltar of Her Majesty the Queen, as Queen of Gibraltar. "He is not a representative or official of HMG in the UK," he says adding that powers reserved in the Constitution of Overseas Territories to Her Majesty or Her Governor are thus not powers reserved to the UK Government or to the FCO. "The New Constitution renders Gibraltar effectively self governing to a full practical extent in all areas except defence and external affairs. The stated policy objective of the current Gibraltar Government since 1996 has been to achieve effective decolonisation of Gibraltar by means of Constitutional reform that would establish a Constitutional relationship between Gibraltar and the UK that was not colonial in nature, while retaining our sovereignty and other links with the UK. The Gibraltar Government believes that the new Constitution achieves this," says the submission.