MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UN Fourth Committee, UK reaffirms principle of self determination of BOTs, as enshrined in the UN charter

We are committed to supporting requests for removal from UN's list of non-self-governing territories from those Territories whose permanent populations so wish.

UK Ambassador Archie Young to the General Assembly at the UN Fourth Committee, explains the UK position regarding principles of equal rights and self-determination:

This resolution deals with a number of important issues of interest to all members, including the importance of the right of self-determination, sovereign equality and territorial integrity to which the UK’s commitment is iron-clad.

The same cannot be said for the sponsors of this resolution.

Today’s resolution put forward by Russia and Venezuela, amongst others, is a disingenuous and opportunistic effort to appropriate what is genuinely a serious and sensitive issue for their own political purposes.

This is clear by the fact that Member States, as others have said, have not been offered an opportunity to scrutinise this resolution in detail, nor has there been any attempt by the sponsors to engage widely and transparently with members before such an important and complex issue is put before the Fourth Committee, especially given the divergent views in the C24 committee.

We therefore cannot support today’s resolution.

In doing so we reaffirm the UK’s commitment to the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples of the British Overseas Territories, as enshrined in the United Nations Charter. We are equally committed to supporting requests for the removal from the United Nations list of non-self-governing territories from those Territories whose permanent populations so wish. We remind the delegations that each British Overseas Territory has a large measure of internal self-governance, and all have chosen to retain their link to the UK.

And if I can make one more point regarding specifically this resolution, I wanted to underline the point that has already been made about the significant PBI’s (program budget implications) which we do not support, and that were circulated just this morning which further underlines our practical and procedural concerns about this resolution.