Oct 05 - SDGG Chairman's Full UN Speech
SDGG Chairman Richard Buttigieg spoke to the Fourth Committee of the United Nation's General Assembly in New York yesterday.
Below is his full speech:
Good afternoon Mr Chairman and members of the Committee and thank you for the opportunity afforded to me to address you all today.
This Committee has done very little when it comes to the issue of Gibraltar. Your approach to delisting our Nation is simply outdated.
I nevertheless appear before you today with a renewed sense of optimism because, unlike yourselves, the international Court of Sport has recently had the courage to do what you should have done many years ago.
And that is to take decisive and firm action.
CAS has concluded that there is simply no legitimate claim over the sovereignty of Gibraltar.
Spain may well like to throw their toys out of the pram because Gibraltar continues its international progression and is now admitted into FIFA, but, in CAS’ view, there is simply no legitimate claim.
Mr Chairman, you therefore now have a legal decision from an international tribunal that vindicates the position Gibraltar has always held and makes a mockery of the outdated argument Spain has maintained for over 300 hundred years. Perhaps this decision explains why Spain has never had the courage of its convictions to take its case to the international courts.
Now, Mr Chairman, Gibraltar asks itself; if Spain is unwilling to go to court, and the United Kingdom and Gibraltar have developed a modern relationship which is non-colonial in nature and grants Gibraltar a level of self-governance which is also non-colonial, what is this Committee waiting for in order to remove Gibraltar from the UN list of colonies?
You have repeatedly urged the United Kingdom and Spain to resolve the issue but it should be abundantly clear to everyone concerned that there cannot be any progress on the decolonisation of Gibraltar if the right of self-determination of the Gibraltarians is not respected.
As the guardians of such a fundamental right, you are obliged to progress the decolonisation of Gibraltar so we must and will continue to demand positive action from you.
Firstly, this Committee should tell us, once and for all, what else we must do if, in your view, Gibraltar has not done enough to achieve delisting. This is a question that has been posed to you for over a decade and which you continue to ignore.
Secondly, this Committee must act as it is mandated to do and send a visiting mission to Gibraltar for it to see for itself what we are about. Such a visit might perhaps help to open the eyes of the United Nations to the lengths that Spain will go to in order to make lives for the Gibraltarians difficult.
The Committee must realise that through is silence and inaction it emboldens Spain to continue with its aggressive and oppressive attitude towards Gibraltar.
Because it is amazing that in a country where corruption runs rampant, which cannot form a Government after two elections and which is breaking up at its seams, its acting ministers still have the time to attempt to bully the Gibraltarians.
For instance, immediately after the Brexit vote was over, the Acting Spanish Foreign Minister, Mr Margallo, made threatening statements about the future sovereignty of Gibraltar.
Since then, he has written to every EU member effectively asking it to ignore Gibraltar when it comes to Brexit negotiations. As if we were merely a pawn in the political game he will now seek to play with the United Kingdom.
Instead of worrying about the effect of Brexit on the 10,000 Spanish cross-frontier workers who earn in Gibraltar the living that Spain denies them, or on the effect of a Brexit on trade relations between the United Kingdom and Spain, the Acting Minister simply seeks to intimidate the Gibraltarians.
We are nevertheless used to such harassment, Mr Chairman, so Mr Margallo would do well to remember that several before him have failed miserably in similar endeavours, and it would be much more befitting of a supposed NATO allay if Spain instead extended the hand of friendship to Gibraltar.
Because, let us be clear on one thing Mr Chairman, the Gibraltarian is not an intransigent or belligerent person. But it will never ever yield to the antagonistic attitudes of the Kingdom of Spain.
Mr Margallo is alleged to have recently said that it will be ‘very cold’ for Gibraltar outside the EU and that we must chose between a British Gibraltar outside the EU or to remain within the EU with joint sovereignty over our Rock between the United Kingdom and Spain.
The mere fact that he puts forward this scenario (which should be more properly seen as a threat) shows how little he knows the Gibraltarians.
So let him continue with his dictatorial threats whilst his ailing caretaker government remains unable to govern. Time shall prove that it will be colder for him in the political obscurity into which he will undoubtedly fall than it will ever be for Gibraltar. Because whatever happens with Brexit, Gibraltar will continue to fight for its rights; Gibraltar will never ever surrender an iota of its sovereignty; Gibraltar will forever remain British.
Thank you for your time.
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