MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Gibraltar representatives will not be present at this year’s C24

The Leader of the Gibraltar Opposition Joe Bossano will be away for a week in order to participate in the annual regional seminar organised by the United Nations special committee on decolonisation, reports the Gibraltar Chronicle.

Mr Bossano usually attends the seminars ahead of his appearance before the United Nations Committee of 24. This June will be the first C24 session at which neither Chief Minister Peter Caruana or any other Gibraltar Government Minister will be present.

Last year in what was Mr Caruana’s 13th appearance before the C 24 he declared that it was pointless to keep returning because the Committee of 24 had never acted on Gibraltar’s behalf but had instead always chosen and continued to be silent. Gibraltar, he said at the time, had moved on but the committee had chosen to remain behind.

The Government position, he told C24 members, was that Gibraltar now had exactly the relationship she wanted with the UK. It was not colonial in nature and is no longer a colony. The committee had therefore made itself irrelevant.

The regional seminar this year takes place in the Caribbean region following the practice of alternating its venue between the Pacific and Caribbean regions where most of the territories are to be found.

On this occasion, the Government of St Kitts Nevis is hosting the seminar, and like other former British colonies, the St Kitts Government is a strong supporter of the Committee of 24 and of the defence of the right to self-determination for all the remaining territories.

The theme of the seminar is “Challenges and opportunities in the process of decolonisation in today’s world”. The issues for debate on the agenda include strengthening cooperation with administering powers and the role of the Special Committee in facilitating enhanced outreach to and participation of the people of the Non-Self-Governing Territories in the UN decolonisation process.

There will then be specific agenda items for discussion dealing with the decolonisation of the territories in the Caribbean, those in the Pacific and other Non-Self-Governing Territories elsewhere. Gibraltar is among the territories covered by this point in the agenda.

The role of the United Nations in providing developmental assistance to the territories on the list will also be discussed and the final session is entitled the “Way Forward”. This includes the priorities for the remainder of the Second International Decade for the Eradication of Colonialism and the possible approach and priorities beyond the Second Decade.

Three experts and three representatives of non-governmental organisations are due to speak at the seminar, including specialists in decolonisation in the Caribbean, as well as in public education, referendum issues and mediation.

The official delegation from the Committee of 24 will be Indonesia (the current chair), Cuba, Sierra Leone and Syria. Bolivia will attend representing the Latin American and Caribbean group and the Russian Federation as the representative of the Eastern European Group. There will also be representatives from the Asian and African Groups and from the other listed Non-Self-Governing territories.