Jun 12 - SDGG Unable To Visit UN
The Self Determination for Gibraltar Group did not appear before the United Nations Committee of 24 yesterday because it did not receive the requisite permission from the UN in time to make travel arrangements.
The SDGG has submitted a written version of the speech it would have delivered to the Chairman of the Committee of 24 and will be present before the next UN meeting in October 2018.
The full speech is posted below:
Dear Mr Chairman and Members of the Committee.
In all honesty, I am not quite sure whether to use this opportunity to address you in order to complain about this Committee’s lack of leadership and positive action as far as Gibraltar is concerned, or to highlight Spain’s hypocrisy and real intention towards Gibraltar. I will therefore briefly touch upon both.
Spain’s representatives often ask for the joint sovereignty of Gibraltar. In doing so they cite outdated principles which they do not have the courage to test before the International Courts as we have asked for some time now.
Their irredentist claims convey a callous disregard for the right of self- determination which is enshrined in the UN Charter. They try to disguise that by stating that the people of Gibraltar are not in fact a people and we are therefore not entitled to self-determination.
I am not sure whether it is worse for Spain to disregard the right of self- determination of the Gibraltarians, or for them to not consider us a people. But neither stance is surprising coming from a country that, in this day and age, sends paramilitary forces to block the right to vote of its own citizens and then imprisons elected politicians for having had the audacity to hold a referendum.
What is surprising and disheartening is why this Committee, knowing these things, does not act more decisively when it comes to Gibraltar. Year after year you urge the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain to resolve the issue of Gibraltar bilaterally.
But if Spain is clear that, as far as they are concerned, the Gibraltar issue can only be resolved with them acquiring some form of sovereignty, why does this Committee not tell Spain that cannot happen?
Because, if Spain was to be granted joint sovereignty over Gibraltar, we would have two colonial masters instead of one. Consequently, far from achieving this Committee’s aim, Spain’s proposition would in fact perpetuate Gibraltar’s colonial status.
Why are you therefore so hesitant to rebut Spain’s stance and thereby protect the right of self-determination of the people of Gibraltar?
Gibraltar enjoys a high level of self-governance that is not akin to that of a colony. Our Constitution reflects as much and the United Kingdom agrees. If this Committee is nevertheless of the view that Gibraltar must do more to achieve delisting, you must tell us what this is. What you cannot do is ignore this question which we have posed to you for more than a decade now.
And if you want to see for yourself the reality of Gibraltar and its people, stop worrying about offending Spain and send a visiting mission to Gibraltar as you are mandated to do.
Mr Chairman, I am acutely aware that this Committee has many important issues to deal with and that you work hard to do so. But I am sorry to say that when it comes to Gibraltar, you are failing in your responsibility and, more worryingly, you are failing the people of Gibraltar.
It is important that this Committee should undertake a more active role when it comes to Gibraltar because, if you do not, there is a real risk that Members of the Committee might believe the lies which the Kingdom of Spain seems to have no qualms to spew.
For example, in the context of the Brexit negotiations, the recently ousted Government of Spain, led by its now ex-Foreign Minister (another one who disappears without seeing a Spanish Gibraltar), stated in public that they would not seek to take advantage of Brexit to further their sovereignty claims. Instead, they said, they would focus on protecting the rights of the people crossing the frontier between Gibraltar and Spain every day.
That was a very welcome comment indeed and, if it had been true, would have represented a positive and conciliatory approach which I would have been the first to applaud. Unfortunately, however, and as on many previous occasions, the Partido Popular says one thing before the international press and then does something very different in private.
Perhaps it is because the Partido Popular got used to its electorate allowing them to get away with dubious acts of impropriety. Whatever the reason, the PP very quickly, and yet again, demonstrated its real and perverse intentions towards Gibraltar.
Only last month, when dealing with Brexit and Gibraltar, the Partido Popular presented a motion in the Spanish Senate which started off in draft form without referring to sovereignty but, by the time the text was agreed, had reverted to Spain reasserting its claim to sovereignty.
Contrary to their purported goodwill, therefore, the Partido Popular was very much using Brexit as a political weapon against Gibraltar.
It is to be hoped that the now governing Partido Socialista Obrero Español will adopt a more conciliatory and cooperative approach towards Gibraltar but that remains to be seen. My Group certainly hopes that the next time we appear before the United Nations we will have something positive to say about the PSOE’s approach.
But by not taking a stance against Spain’s oppressive tactics, by not telling Spain that the wishes of the people of Gibraltar must be paramount in any consideration of our future, and by allowing the Kingdom of Spain to continue its hostile approach to Gibraltar, this Committee fails to uphold the standards of democracy, freedom and self-determination which it should be robustly defending.
So please take decisive and firm action once and for all. By not doing so, you embolden the bully and isolate a people.
You are the custodians of the fundamental right of self determination and must therefore ensure that no one denies the Gibraltarians that right.
Mr Chairman, my group does not seek conflict. On the contrary, we wish to peacefully coexist with our neighbours. But we will never ever cease in our fight to ensure that the rights of the Gibraltarians are respected.
The right to our identity; the right to our homeland; the right to choose without fear or coercion.
Thank you all for your time.
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