Oct 09 - UN Speech by SDGG Chairman Richard Buttigieg
Yesterday evening the recently appointed chairman of the Self-Determination for Gibraltar Group addressed the United Nations' 4th Committee. His speech in full is as follows:
'Good afternoon Mr Chairman and members of the Committee.
I appear before you today as the newly appointed Chairperson of the Self Determination for Gibraltar Group. I thank you for the opportunity afforded to me to address you all. I will be brief as is required.
I am the representative of a group which drives the push for self-determination across the community of Gibraltar. But I am also part of the voice of the young generation of Gibraltarians.
To those of you who were once colonised, many of you, I ask for your support in recognising that we, part of the family of peoples of non-self governing territories, have the inalienable right to self-determination. Gibraltar is one of the smallest remaining territories pending delisting. Our case is irrefutable and long overdue.
Why? Well, because the people of Gibraltar have been born, have lived and have died in our land for three hundred and ten years, longer than peoples in the United States of America, Australia and many other countries which sit here today. The people of Gibraltar have struggled over all these years to build a community, a very small nation, with a great degree of maximum self-government which may be as close to being non-colonial as possible. To such extent that, with the 2006 Constitution, Gibraltar has self-government principles which exceed, for example, what the people of Scotland have now.
I asked myself, why am I here?
Regrettably, it is because of the outdated position the Kingdom of Spain adopts towards Gibraltar. For over 50 years, mostly before I was even born, the three parties to this so called dispute have made representations to you.
I, along with many other young Gibraltarians watched and listened to this long running debate. We asked ourselves how it is that the position of successive Spanish Governments has not changed in all this time? We also ask, however, whether we can trust the UN?
How is it that a Spain that has painfully developed a democracy, that has joined us in the European Union and that belongs to NATO, still places restoration of national pride, mere symbolism, before its credentials as a modern progressive and democratic nation?
Why is it that the Kingdom of Spain will not acknowledge that we do have a separate voice and status?
The Spanish Government’s claim over Gibraltar, based on the Treaty of Utrecht the validity of which they are not brave enough to test in the International Court of Justice, is archaic and out of touch with modern Human Rights.
Why should the Spanish people, particularly those 10,000 or more Spanish workers who work in Gibraltar, and we, the Gibraltarians, have our lives disrupted with renewed restrictions at a land frontier where EU principles of freedom of movement should apply?
The Government of Spain punishes its own people with restrictions and delays that the EU itself has considered "unjustifed" and "disproportionate".
Generations of Gibraltarians keep asking all these questions. We will keep asking them, because the people of Gibraltar, a resolute and tenacious people, will never surrender in our resolve to finally exercise our rights and justify the sacrifices of our forefathers. Nor will our children or our children's children.
We are not secessionists. We are a people specifically listed as colonial. We have nevertheless proudly achieved, after many struggles and arguments, a partnership with the United Kingdom based on respect and recognition for our right to decide our future. But the Kingdom of Spain continues to oppress us in a manner which does not befit a country that is seeking a non-permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.
All we ask for is to be recognised as a people with the right to decide our own future for ourselves.
We are integrated within the European Union to which both the UK and the Kingdom of Spain belong. It is a Union where national sovereignties have progressively been diluted for more than 30 years. It therefore simply defies all logic that a sovereingnty claim might be used as the reason to deny us our right to self determination.
Thank you Mr Chairman and members of the Committee for your time.'
YGTV also interviewed Richard following his speech to find out more on where he's looking to take the group.
