MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands tells Decolonization Committee C24, “Our voice is all that matters”
United Nations, is where our threatening neighbor hopes to gather support to rewrite history to suit their colonialist ambitions. By MLA Teslyn Barkman
The Falklands people are not the UK officials that have administered the Islands. However, Argentina don’t accept this, and requested again to be our colonial masters at the UN C24-decolonisation committee. MLA Short and I attended the UN meeting of the “question of the Falklands” on Tuesday 18th June to point to the obvious - Our voice is all that matters.
The Falklands people are those that came from around the world to make an uninhabited land their home, and did so peacefully until Argentine announced ambitions to colonize us in the 1950s. The truth needs no defense. Except, it seems, at the United Nations, where our threatening neighbor hopes to gather support to rewrite history to suit their colonialist ambitions.
Today, Members of the @FIAssembly @teslynbark and @gav424 addressed the United Nations to make the strong case for Falkland Islanders' right to self-determination.
— FalklandsinUK (@FalklandsinUK) June 18, 2024
While self-determination is enshrined in the UN Charter, Islanders have had to fight for this right.
You can… pic.twitter.com/5HcdQ57qEZ
We were a colony and it held us back and eventually led us to war. Our relationship with the UK is improved now, and is one respectfully of our choosing, but in the 1960s and 70s their indifference, and Argentina‘s colonialist ambitions, forced war upon us.
My mother, her family and community at Goose Green were locked up, whilst the homes, farms and landscape of the Falklands was trashed and covered in landmines. Our people had to pick up the pieces of their lives as the cleared limbs from the green. It was a senseless war over misrepresented facts. Unfortunately the misrepresentation of our people and our history continues today.
Despite all we have suffered - including illegal economic sanctions in the post war period - Argentina call our people illegal. When they know we are descended from the civilians who established before 1833. They acknowledge they think we are not valid because we grew as a people under the ‘wrong’ colonial master, the UK. They would like to correct this by colonizing us so we can have their approved colonial master, them. Astoundingly, at a decolonization meeting some countries lean in to this suggestion.
There were glimmers of hope throughout the meeting however. Heard loud and clear at this sitting was the call for self determination to be respected.
So, we sit here and while Foreign Minister Diana Mondino claps because she has friends in South America. We sit here in full knowledge that Argentine complaints do not change the truth, or that the good work we do to support global causes is a gift we offer for no political favors. We love our home and our people, and watching both grow is the pride of every Falkland Islander.
Colonialism is a situation we would never want to return to. Our people have had enough of being a political toy. The Falklands Constitution was last reviewed in 2009 and more power to our self-governance was enshrined. We have taken our self determination very seriously and have grown a society with free education, free healthcare and a Standard and Poor’s credit rating of A+.
All UN C24 committee members who take up our declared invitation to visit the Falklands can learn of our home firsthand. We are a stable democracy that is doing good. Although, comparing the interventions from MLA Short and myself to the dull parade of statements from the opposition, I know who knows and cares more about the Falkland Islands – unsurprisingly it is the people of the Falkland Islands.
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Read all commentsLibby - Argentina was not under military rule in 1986.
Jun 20th, 2024 - 10:52 pm +6So, in 1986, Argentina recognised the Islanders right of self-determination when it ratified the CCPR.
Resolutions? How about 1541 (1960) and 2625 (1970)?
The last resolution was in 1988. It was answered to the UN's satisfaction, and there have been none since. The annual farce that is the C24 is of no consequence. They adopt a Falklands resolution in June, and then in August they drop it - failing to recommend their own resolution for adoption by the UN.
A pantomime. The only people being deceived, are the Argentines.
https://falklandstimeline.wordpress.com/united-nations-documents/
Libby the white population of Argentina are not native to the land, the United Provinces was created by the Spanish colonists by stealing the land from the natives the rest of Argentina was also stolen by Argentina from the native population ,hypocritical is it not,? so yes you are colonists , the population of the Falklands is now approaching 4,000 people, and are nowhere near 97% British, people from 66 nations call it home including some of Argentine heritage ,Chilean, Uruguayan French Swedish, the list goes on, your facts are so wrong in every way, finally they have never been your islands, Britain claimed the islands long before you existed, the claim was never given up, neither Spain France Portugal or the Netherlands have ever said they claimed the islands first, only Argentina does, strange that is it not, so yes it is explicable and hypocritical for you to claim you where not and are colonialists.
Jun 19th, 2024 - 10:40 pm +5In August 1986, Argentina finally ratified the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (1966). The CCPR had come into effect in 1976. The UK ratified immediately, but Argentina prevaricated for a decade because it no longer liked the wording, despite being a signatory in 1966.
Jun 19th, 2024 - 11:38 pm +5“Article 1 –
1. All peoples have the right of self-determination. By virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.
2. All peoples may, for their own ends, freely dispose of their natural wealth and resources without prejudice to any obligations arising out of international economic co-operation, based upon the principle of mutual benefit, and international law. In no case may a people be deprived of its own means of subsistence.
3. The States Parties to the present Covenant, including those having responsibility for the administration of Non-Self-Governing and Trust Territories, shall promote the realization of the right of self-determination, and shall respect that right, in conformity with the provisions of the Charter....”
I quote Graham Pascoe - “Self-determination was thereby confirmed as a right of all peoples including those of non-self governing territories, and it became an obligation on states responsible for such territories to promote“ the realization of the right of self-determination” for the peoples living in them. ... Thus Britain is obliged to promote external self-determination for the Falkland Islanders. To hand the islands to Argentina would be a breach of that obligation…”
Seems to me that Argentina accepted that the islanders had the right of self-determination in 1986 on ratification. I have checked, Argentina did not make an exception or other caveat regarding the Falklands upon ratification.
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