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The Falklands' voice heard: Commemorating 10 years since the Referendum

Thursday, March 9th 2023 - 19:37 UTC
Full article 23 comments

Ten years ago, the people of the Falkland Islands participated in a landmark referendum, overseen by international observers, to determine their political status as an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom. The question posed was, “Do you wish the Falkland Islands to retain their current political status?” and an overwhelming 99.8% of voters, on a 92% turnout, chose to remain a self-governing territory of the UK. Read full article

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  • Juan Cervantes

    A very prosperous future awaits you, continue to develop and grow , and good luck to you all,

    Mar 09th, 2023 - 08:12 pm - Link - Report abuse +4
  • Roger Lorton

    Happy Anniversary

    https://falklandstimeline.files.wordpress.com/2022/09/2000-to-2015.pdf

    Mar 09th, 2023 - 10:51 pm - Link - Report abuse +4
  • Liberato

    https://www.un.org/dppa/decolonization/en/nsgt/falkland-islands-malvinas#:~:text=Listing%20as%20a%20Non%2DSelf,Charter%20of%20the%20United%20Nations.

    Go on with the charade. I bet that those two NO votes were the last made that day with the objective of not showing enough the absurdity of a 100% yes votes in a population of almost entirelly of british origins asked if they want to continue been british.

    With ten territories under british colonialism in this 21 century, you british have dominated the business, taking Spainor even the USA looks like childrens in the game.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 03:56 am - Link - Report abuse -4
  • Argentine_Cityzen

    Its irrelevant, because until its not solved where the sovereignty lies its impossible to know if they have self determination for hold a referendum..
    In other words, it is a referendum without legal value similar to the one that Hitler carried out to annex Poland, or Putin carried out in Donbass in Donetsk, Lughanks and Kherson with 98% of the population wishing to be Russians.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 05:48 am - Link - Report abuse -7
  • Bud Spencer

    Poor little AC and Lib, ahhh never mind they can have another vote in 20 years to see if they have changed their mind, the pair of you are like two little children stamping their feet because they can not get their own way,

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 06:46 am - Link - Report abuse +2
  • bushpilot

    Sovereignty was determined a long, long time before the 2013 referendum.

    The Falklanders will always have to deal with Argentine expansionist ambitions, Argentine imperialism, Argentine colonialism, and severe Argentine brainwashing.

    You can't have something that your brainwashing insists you must have.

    The brainwashing began when your country lost a war to the UK in 1982.

    Your people were celebrating that 1982 war as won. Your people were ecstatic. Then you were lot down hard when in the end your country lost that war badly.

    The humiliation and disappointment were great so you all started putting a lot of spin on the event to make the real story sound different and to save pride.

    Who were the observers for the Falkland Islands referendum?

    Who were the observers for the Russian referendums?

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 07:05 am - Link - Report abuse +5
  • Terence Hill

    “Where the sovereignty lies its impossible to know if they have self determination for hold a referendum..”

    Your blatant dishonesty is in plain view as you’re still misquoting your source as to context.
    Applicable only to the time and place. !975, in Western Sahara versus 1982 The Falkland Islands.

    “The jurist Rosalyn Higgins President of ICJ arrived at a similar conclusion when she pointed out: “No tribunal could tell her [Argentina] that she has to accept British title because she has acquiesced to it But what the protests do not do is to defeat the British title, which was built up in other ways through Argentina’s acquiescence.” 1
    1. Rosalyn Higgins, “Falklands and the Law,” Observer, 2 May 1982

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 07:46 am - Link - Report abuse +2
  • Bud Spencer

    Very desperate posts by our 2 Argentine contributors, 250 people of Chilean descent live on the islands, they are Falklanders, not British along with people from 65 nations of the world, and comparing Putin and Hitlers evil invasions of countries to the Falklands situation is stark raving bonkers,

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 08:25 am - Link - Report abuse +6
  • Roger Lorton

    Libby, I am told, and I believe, that the NO voters were actually in favour of full independence.

    Zit, if sovereignty was an issue, there would be a UN GA debate on the Falklands. None since 1988. The last call for one was in 1989. Nobody, not even Argentina, has called for such a debate since 1989. Clearly, the matter was settled to the UN's satisfaction.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 09:38 am - Link - Report abuse +4
  • FitzRoy

    Not just Chileans, Bud, there are people born in Argentina who have taken Falkland Islands status as well and are dedicated to this community, this people. It is obvious this article would bring out the bitter, whinging, desperate usual suspects, especially Terry Hill still spouting his out-of-contest Ros Higgins bollocks. You can't have anything on here without their whining voices in the background!

    There's a presentation this week from one of the UN observers, telling us how he saw the referendum. I don't suppose our whingers will accept that either!

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 09:38 am - Link - Report abuse +2
  • Mike Summers

    Roger, it was a secret ballot. Nobody knows, apart from the 3 who voted “no”, why they did so. Whoever told you that doesn't know.

    There was a commitment that, if there was a significant “no”vote we would do more work to understand what those people wanted. It didn't materialize.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 11:11 am - Link - Report abuse +3
  • Terence Hill

    “Terry Hill still spouting his out-of-contest Ros Higgins bollocks.”

    You are either posting under an alias or have a reading comprehension, as I was refuting the deliberate falsities of Argentine-Cityzen..

    So, give your head shake as you obviously don’t know your ass from a hole in the ground.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 01:25 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Pugol-H

    Liberato
    The ’10 territories’ you refer to are all modern self-governing democracies, with a constitutional arrangement they have chosen, are happy with and can change at any time they want to.

    But hey, what does the opinion of the inhabitants matter???

    It is clearly of no account to you.

    The reason they are still listed as non-self-governing territories is simple, look at who’s on the committee.

    This is why self-determination is so important, it ensures that the inhabitants of the territories decide their future, not people like you.

    Argy_Planter
    You have yet to establish that there is any question over where sovereignty lies.

    So far, all you have listed are later Argentinian actions that violated the existing and long established British sovereignty of the territory.

    Such actions are a violation of British sovereignty, but not a threat to it.

    Violations of established British sovereignty by Argentina, do not constitute a valid sovereignty claim for Argentina.

    The fact is, the argument that Argentina has a valid sovereignty claim in the first place, vis a vie the British claim, cannot be sustained.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 02:14 pm - Link - Report abuse +4
  • Argentine_Cityzen

    the Population of the falkland islands its the right title

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 07:01 pm - Link - Report abuse -2
  • Bud Spencer

    AC, Wipe away your tears, and go have some fun, life is too short to be wasting time crying over the islands you can never have,

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 07:25 pm - Link - Report abuse +1
  • Brasileiro

    Bud Spencer and Trinity Hill

    kkkkkkkkkkk

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 07:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Bud Spencer

    Yes, very funny Western movies,

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 08:11 pm - Link - Report abuse +1
  • Brasileiro

    I'm going to take a shower, lay my head on the pillow, and open a streaming channel to watch Bud Spencer and Terence Hill.

    Obrigado.

    Mar 10th, 2023 - 09:00 pm - Link - Report abuse 0
  • brasherboot

    Argentina is a colony stolen from the natives.

    Argentinians : Go home!

    Mar 11th, 2023 - 06:24 am - Link - Report abuse +3
  • FitzRoy

    My mistake, Terence! I have grown so used to seeing that Rosalyn Higgins out-of-context quote and failed to look at who said it! My apologies.

    Mar 11th, 2023 - 10:11 am - Link - Report abuse +2
  • Argentine citizen

    @FitzRoy There is no quote out of context, the English jurist Rosaly Higgens is very clear when specifying that until sovereignty is resolved it is impossible to determine if the P O P U L A T I O N (as she mentions with that word) has the right of self-determination.
    In other words, the lawyer is clear when saying that there is an open sovereignty dispute and that English sovereignty is not determined.
    Following that, she gives her personal opinion, and believes that there would be grounds for the United Kingdom to obtain sovereignty by acquisition of Argentina.
    in the interim, it is clear in treating them, without the rights of self-determination until it is resolved if they have them

    Mar 13th, 2023 - 04:41 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Terence Hill

    “Where the sovereignty lies its impossible to know if they have self determination for hold a referendum..”

    Shamed once , shamed twice two time loser.

    Your blatant dishonesty is in plain view as you’re still misquoting your source as to context.
    Applicable only to the time and place. !975, in Western Sahara versus 1982 The Falkland Islands.Later being greater

    “The jurist Rosalyn Higgins President of ICJ arrived at a similar conclusion when she pointed out: “No tribunal could tell her [Argentina] that she has to accept British title because she has acquiesced to it But what the protests do not do is to defeat the British title, which was built up in other ways through Argentina’s acquiescence.” 1
    1. Rosalyn Higgins, “Falklands and the Law,” Observer, 2 May 1982

    the Peace of Utrecht, which explicitly bars any Argentine claim of succession.
    “...it is hereby further agreed and concluded, that neither the Catholic King, nor any of his heirs and successors whatsoever, shall sell, yield, pawn, transfer, or by any means, or under any name, alienate from them and the crown of Spain, to the French, or to any other nations whatever, any lands, dominions, or territories, or any part thereof, belonging to Spain in America.”

    Mar 13th, 2023 - 10:54 am - Link - Report abuse 0
  • Pugol-H

    Argy_Planter
    As I said;

    ‘You have yet to establish that there is any question over where sovereignty lies.’

    So far, all you have listed are later Argentinian actions that violated the existing and long established British sovereignty of the territory.

    First you need to prove when exactly it was that the Islands stopped being British territory, for any later actions to be considered the basis for a valid claim.

    And don’t bother quoting the Masserano-Rochtford treaty, no mention whatsoever in that document of any ‘British withdrawal’, only an unconditional handover by the Spanish.

    https://www.fiassociation.com/shopimages/pdfs/1.%201771%20Agreement%20between%20the%20British%20and%20Spanish%20Governments.pdf

    See for yourself.

    Mar 14th, 2023 - 04:59 pm - Link - Report abuse 0

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